Blythe was She by Robert Burns
Phemie trips lightly by the banks o' Earn, and the speaker likens her looks and smile tae a May flow'r and a simmer morn. The speaker has wandered the Highlands and Lawlands, but ca's Phemie the blythest lass ever tae tread the dewy green.
By Robert Burns · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Celebratory Poetry · 269 words
First lines
Written at Oughtertyre. Phemie is Miss Euphemia Murray, a cousin of Sir William Murray of Oughtertyre. -Lang.
Tune-"Andro and his Cutty Gun."
Chorus. -Blythe, blythe and merry was she, / Blythe was she but and ben; / Blythe by the banks of Earn, / And blythe in Glenturit glen.
By Oughtertyre grows the aik, / On Yarrow banks the birken shaw; / But Phemie was a bonier lass / Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw. / Blythe, blythe, &c.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Four rhyming stanzas and a repeated chorus sing o' Phemie's looks and blythe ways.
- Celebratory Poetry — The speaker ca's Phemie bonier than the lasses o' Yarrow and the blythest lass ever tae tread the dewy green.
Tags
blytheness · bonie lass · Scots sang · Highlands · Lawlands
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Blythe was She is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: Date unknown
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Celebratory Poetry
- Length: 269 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)
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