dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Poems and Songs  »  515 . Song—O let me in this ae night

Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

515 . Song—O let me in this ae night

O LASSIE, are ye sleepin yet,

Or are ye waukin, I wad wit?

For Love has bound me hand an’ fit,

And I would fain be in, jo.

Chorus.—O let me in this ae night,

This ae, ae, ae night;

O let me in this ae night,

I’ll no come back again, jo!

O hear’st thou not the wind an’ weet?

Nae star blinks thro’ the driving sleet;

Tak pity on my weary feet,

And shield me frae the rain, jo.

O let me in, &c.

The bitter blast that round me blaws,

Unheeded howls, unheeded fa’s;

The cauldness o’ thy heart’s the cause

Of a’ my care and pine, jo.

O let me in, &c.

HER ANSWER


O tell na me o’ wind an’ rain,

Upbraid na me wi’ cauld disdain,

Gae back the gate ye cam again,

I winna let ye in, jo.

Chorus.—I tell you now this ae night,

This ae, ae, ae night;

And ance for a’ this ae night,

I winna let ye in, jo.

The snellest blast, at mirkest hours,

That round the pathless wand’rer pours

Is nocht to what poor she endures,

That’s trusted faithless man, jo.

I tell you now, &c.

The sweetest flower that deck’d the mead,

Now trodden like the vilest weed—

Let simple maid the lesson read

The weird may be her ain, jo.

I tell you now, &c.

The bird that charm’d his summer day,

Is now the cruel Fowler’s prey;

Let witless, trusting, Woman say

How aft her fate’s the same, jo!

I tell you now, &c.