Traditional: Rantin' Rovin' Robin
Rantin' Rovin' Robin
Written by Robert Burns
One verse and chorus: MP3 (400K)
"Rantin' Rovin' Robin" is performed by
on " Robert Burns"
Notes: Andy writes this about Rantin'
Rovin' Robin:
This song commemorates an incident which occurred when Robert Burns was only
a few days old:
"Our monarch's hindmost year but ane
Was five and twenty days begun
'Twas then a blast o' Janwar win'
Blew hansel in on Robin."
The incident is best described in a letter by Gilbert Burns (Robert's
brother), first printed in "Dr. Currie's Edition of 1803."
"When my father built his clay biggin', he put in two stone jambs, as they
are called, and a lintel, carrying up the chimney in his clay-gable. The
consequence was that as the gable subsided, the jambs remaining firm threw
it off its center; and one very stormy morning when my brother was nine or
ten days old, a little before daylight, a part of the gable fell out and the
rest appeared so shattered that my mother, with the young poet, had to be
carried through the storm to a neighbor's house, where they remained a week
till their own dwelling was adjusted."
(From the third edition of "The Burns Encyclopedia" by Maurice Lindsay, pub.
1980, St. Martin's Press, Inc. New York)
Lyrics:
There was a lad was born in Kyle,
But whatn'a day, o' whatn'a style
I doot it's hardly worth the while
Tae be sae nice wi' Robin
For Robin was a rovin' boy,
A rantin' rovin' rantin' rovin',
Robin was a rovin' boy,
A rantin' rovin' Robin.
Oor Monarch's hindmost year but ane,
Was five and twenty days begun'
'Twas then a blast o' Januar' win'
Blew hansel in on Robin.
The gossip keekit in his loof,
Quo' she,"Wha' lives shall see the proof,
This waly boy will be nae coof;
I think we'll ca' him Robin".
He'll hae misfortunes great and sma'
But aye a heart abune them a'
He'll be a credit tae us a';
We'll a' be prood o' Robin.
But sure as three times three mak' nine,
I see by ilka score and line,
This chap will dearly like oor kin'
So leeze me on thee, Robin.