Comin thro' the Rye

By Robert Burns 1759–1796 Robert Burns

[First Setting]

Comin thro' the rye, poor body,

Comin thro' the rye,

She draigl't a' her petticoatie

Comin thro' the rye.

[CHORUS.]

Oh Jenny 's a' weet poor body

Jenny 's seldom dry,

She draigl't a' her petticoatie

Comin thro' the rye.

Gin a body meet a body

Comin thro' the rye,

Gin a body kiss a body —

Need a body cry.

Oh Jenny 's a' weet, &c.

Gin a body meet a body

Comin thro' the glen;

Gin a body kiss a body —

Need the warld ken!

Oh Jenny 's a' weet, &c.

[Second Setting]

Gin a body meet a body, comin thro' the rye,

Gin a body kiss a body, need a body cry;

Ilka body has a body, ne'er a ane hae I;

But a' the lads they loe me, and what the waur am I.

Gin a body meet a body, comin frae the well,

Gin a body kiss a body, need a body tell;

Ilka body has a body, ne'er a ane hae I,

But a the lads they loe me, and what the waur am I.

Gin a body meet a body, comin frae the town,

Gin a body kiss a body, need a body gloom;

Ilka Jenny has her Jockey, ne'er a ane hae I,

But a' the lads they loe me, and what the waur am I.

Biography

Born on 25 January 1759 in Alloway, Scotland, to William and Agnes Brown Burnes, Robert Burns followed his father's example by becoming a tenant farmer. Unlike William Burnes, however, Burns was able to escape the vicissitudes and vagaries of the soil in two ways: toward the end of his life he became an excise collector in Dumfries, where he died in 1796; and throughout his life he was a practicing poet. As a poet he recorded . . .

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