Tam Glen

By Robert Burns 1759–1796 Robert Burns

My heart is a-breaking, dear Tittie,

Some counsel unto me come len';

To anger them a' is a pity,

But what will I do wi' Tam Glen?

I'm thinking, wi' sic a braw fellow,

In poortith I might mak a fen':

What care I in riches to wallow,

If I mauna marry Tam Glen?

There's Lowrie, the laird o' Dumeller,

"Guid-day to you,"—brute! he comes ben:

He brags and he blaws o' his siller,

But when will he dance like Tam Glen?

My minnie does constantly deave me,

And bids me beware o' young men;

They flatter, she says, to deceive me;

But wha can think sae o' Tam Glen?

My daddie says, gin I'll forsake him,

He'll gie me guid hunder marks ten:

But, if it's ordain'd I maun take him,

O wha will I get but Tam Glen?

Yestreen at the valentines' dealing,

My heart to my mou gied a sten:

For thrice I drew ane without failing,

And thrice it was written, "Tam Glen"!

The last Halloween I was waukin

My droukit sark-sleeve, as ye ken:

His likeness cam up the house staukin,

And the very gray breeks o' Tam Glen!

Come counsel, dear Tittie, don't tarry;

I'll gie ye my bonie black hen,

Gif ye will advise me to marry

The lad I lo'e dearly, Tam Glen.

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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