Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad
"Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad" is the title and refrain of a poem and song by Robert Burns, first written in 1787, and then expanded in 1793.[1][2]
Development
The air called "Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad" was composed around the middle of the eighteenth century by John Bruce, a famous fiddler of Dumfries. John O'Keeffe added it to his pasticcio opera The Poor Soldier (1783) for the song "Since love is the plan, I'll love if I can".[1]
Robert Burns wrote two sets of words to the tune, using the existing title as the first line for both versions. The first was written for James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (volume 2, 1788), and consists of only two verses. The second version was written for George Thomson's A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice (1793), and consists of a chorus and three verses.[1]
Text
First version (1787)
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad,
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad,
Tho' father and mither and a' should gae mad,
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad.
Come down the back stairs when you come to court me,
Come down the back stairs when you come to court me,
Come down the back stairs, and let nae body see,
And come as ye were na coming to me.
Second version (1793)
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad;
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad;
Tho' father, and mother, and a' should gae mad,
O, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad.
But warily tent, when you come to court me,
And come na unless the back-yett be a-jee;
Syne up the back-stile, and let nae body see,
And come as ye were na comin' to me,
And come as ye were na comin' to me.
O, whistle, etc.
At kirk or at market, whene'er ye meet me,
Gang by me as though that ye cared na a flie;
But steal me a blink o' your bonnie black e'e,
Yet look as ye were na lookin' at me,
Yet look as ye were na lookin' at me.
O, whistle, etc.
Aye vow and protest that ye care na for me,
And whyles ye may lichtly my beauty a wee;
But court na anither, though jokin' ye be,
For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me,
For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me.
O, whistle, etc.
In popular culture
In 1904 it was used as the title of "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" in the book Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James in which a man digs up a bronze whistle in a possible Templar preceptory.
References
- ^ a b c Whitelaw, Alexander (1843). The Book of Scottish Song. London: Blackie and Son. p. 334.
- ^ "Robert Burns Country: Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad:". Retrieved 3 October 2019.
External links
- Text of the poem
- v
- t
- e
- "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (1782)
- "John Barleycorn" (1782)
- "Man Was Made to Mourn" (1784)
- "Address to the Deil" (1785)
- "Epitaph for James Smith" (1785)
- "Halloween" (1785)
- "Handsome Nell" (1774)
- "Holy Willie's Prayer" (1785)
- "To a Mouse" (1785)
- The Kilmarnock volume (1786)
- "To a Louse" (1786)
- "To a Mountain Daisy" (1786)
- "The Cotter's Saturday Night" (1786)
- "The Battle of Sherramuir" (1787)
- "The Birks of Aberfeldy" (1787)
- "The Holy Tulzie" (1784)
- "Auld Lang Syne" (1788)
- "My Heart's in the Highlands" (1789)
- "Tam o' Shanter" (1790)
- "Ae Fond Kiss" (1791)
- "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation" (1791)
- "Ye Jacobites by Name" (1791)
- "Sweet Afton" (1791)
- "The Slave's Lament" (1792)
- "Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad" (1793)
- "Scots Wha Hae" (1793)
- "A Red, Red Rose" (1794)
- "Ca' the yowes" (revised, 1794)
- "A Man's A Man for A' That" (1795)
- Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
- Edinburgh
- Belfast
- Dublin Variant
- London
- Jean Armour (wife)
- Robert Burns Junior (son)
- Francis Wallace Burns (son)
- William Nicol Burns (son)
- Elizabeth 'Betty' Burns (natural daughter)
- James Glencairn Burns (son)
- Agnes Broun (mother)
- William Burnes (father)
- Gilbert Burns (brother)
- Agnes Burns (sister)
- Annabella Burns (sister)
- William Burns (brother)
- John Burns (brother)
- Isabella Burns (sister)
- Adam Armour (brother-in-law)
- James Armour (father-in-law)
- Robert Burnes (uncle)
- Robert Aiken
- Robert Ainslie
- John Anderson
- John Bacon (landlord)
- John Ballantine
- Alison Begbie
- Thomas Blacklock
- Nelly Blair
- Richard Brown
- May Cameron
- Mary Campbell
- Margaret Chalmers
- Jenny Clow
- Alison Cockburn
- Alexander Cunningham (lawyer)
- Lord Glencairn
- Frances Dunlop
- Robert Fergusson
- Alexander Findlater
- Jean Gardner
- Jean Glover
- Robert Graham of Fintry
- Gavin Hamilton
- Helen Hyslop
- Nelly Kilpatrick
- John Lewars
- Janet Little
- Jean Lorimer (Chloris)
- James McKie
- John MacKenzie
- Agnes Maclehose
- John McMurdo
- William Maxwell
- John Murdoch
- William Nicol
- Anna Park
- Elizabeth Paton
- John Richmond
- James Smith
- David Sillar
- John Syme
- Alexander Tait
- Robert Tannahill
- Peggy Thompson
- Edward Whigham
- The Geddes Burns
- Glenriddell Manuscripts
- Bachelors' Club, Tarbolton
- Burns Clubs
- Robert Burns World Federation
- Bust of Robert Burns
- Burns supper
- Memorials
- Kilmarnock
- Robert Burns's Commonplace Book 1783–1785
- Robert Burns's Interleaved Scots Musical Museum
- Montreal
- Barre
- Albany
- Boston
- Robert Burns (Stevenson)
- Robert Burns (Steell)
- Robert Burns's diamond point engravings
- Robert Burns and the Eglinton Estate
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
- The Loves of Robert Burns (1930 film)
- "The Marriage of Robin Redbreast and the Wren"
- "The Merry Muses of Caledonia"
- The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scotch Milkmaid
- A Manual of Religious Belief