with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

72
pedia Britannicaj which he composed at half a
guinea a week!^
The bonie brucket lassie
She's blue beneath the e'en
She was the fairest lassie
That danced on the green
A lad he loo'd her dearly,
She did his love return ;
But he his vows has broken,
And left her for to mourn.
^' My shape," she says, " was handsome,
My face was fair and clean
But now I'm bonie brucket,
And blue beneath the e'en
My eyes were bright and sparkling,
Before that they turn'd blue
But now they're dull with weeping.
And a', my love, for you.
" My person it was comely.
My shape, they said, was neat
But now I am quite chang'd.
My stays they winna meet
* An account of this eccentric character is printed in the
Appendix to this volume, marked (b).