The Gatherin' O' The Clan

The gatherin' o' the clan: Oliver Gogarty told me this was probably written by Robert Burns. It has been in the oral tradition for a long time and I have heard many other verses, some of which are coarse without being funny. I have chosen to record only such verses as Burns might have written. These verses are certainly coarse, but they are also genuinely poetic; and only a frozen gravity can restrain laughter.

Gathering of the Clans

'Twas on the first of August, the party it began,
Oh, never shall I forget, me lads, the gatherin' of the clan!

Chorus:

Singin' hi lee a lassie, hi lee a loo,
No matter how ye lees nicht, ye canna hee the noo.

John Brown, the farmer, was very surprised to see
Four-and-twenty maidenheads a-hangin' from a tree.

There was dancin' in the meadows, there was dancin' in the ricks,
You couldna hear the music for the swishin' of the pricks.

The bride was in the parlor, explaining to the groom,
The vagina, not the rectum, was the entrance to the womb.

The parson's daughter she was there, a-sittin' right up front,
A garland o' roses round her head and a carrot up her cunt.

'Twas on the first of August, the party it began,
Oh, never shall I forget, me lads, the gatherin' of the clan!