Traditional Scottish Songs
- Dainty Davie

As with many of his songs, Robert Burns collaborated with George Thomson who wrote the music. In Dainty Davie, they disagreed violently about the musical setting, which was the same tune as "There was a Lad was born in Kyle" and Burns wrote "... nothing since a Highland wench in the Cowgate once bore me three bastards at a birth, has surprised me so much as your opinion on this subject". Thomson refused to agree with Burns (and his exaggerated and fictitious metaphor).


Dainty Davie

Meet me on the Warlock Knowe,
Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie!
There I'll spend the day wi' you,
My ain dear Dainty Davie.

Now rosy May comes in wi' flowers
To deck her gay, green-spreading bowers;
And now comes in the happy hours
To wander wi' my Davie.

The crystal waters round us fa'
The merry birds are lovers a',
The scented breezes round us blaw
A wandering wi' my Davie.

When purple morning starts the hare
To steal upon her early fare,
Then thro' the dews I will repair,
To meet my faithfu' Davie.

When day, expiring in the west,
The curtain draws o' Nature's rest,
I flee to his arms I lo'e the best:
And that's my ain dear Davie!

Meaning of unusual words:
knowe=hill
fa'=fall

Return to the Index of Traditional Scottish Songs



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