One Night as I did Wander by Robert Burns
The speaker wanders one night when the corn is beginning to grow and sits on the root of an old tree to reflect. Before him, the old river Ayr runs noisily toward the sea, while a cushat’s cooing sounds above him and echoes through the braes.
By Robert Burns · First published 1799 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Scottish Poetry, Pastoral Poetry · 84 words
First lines
Tune-"John Anderson, my jo."
One night as I did wander, / When corn begins to shoot, / I sat me down to ponder / Upon an auld tree root; / Auld Ayr ran by before me, / And bicker'd to the seas; / A cushat crooded o'er me, / That echoed through the braes / ......
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, musical first-person poem focused on a moment of contemplation and sensory landscape description rather than sustained narrative action.
- Scottish Poetry — Its Ayrshire setting, Scots vocabulary such as 'auld,' 'braes,' 'cushat,' and 'crooded,' and attribution to a traditional tune place it firmly in the Scottish poetic tradition.
- Pastoral Poetry — The poem centers on rural spring imagery: sprouting corn, an old tree root, the River Ayr, birdsong, and surrounding hillsides.
- Nature Poetry — Natural details dominate the verse, with the flowing river and the dove's call creating the poem's atmosphere and subject.
Tags
Scottish poetry · lyric poem · pastoral · nature poetry · nocturnal setting · rural Scotland · River Ayr · Scottish braes · springtime · growing corn · wandering · solitude
What this Textopian page supports
One Night as I did Wander is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1799 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1799 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Scottish Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Nature Poetry, Song Lyric
- Length: 84 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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