Birks of Aberfeldy

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks "Bonnie lassie, will ye go To the birks of Aberfeldy?" He describes the summer there, birds singing, cliffs "crown'd wi' flowres," and so on. He would wish for nothing more than to be "supremely blest wi' love and thee"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1840 371890); reportedly written 1787
KEYWORDS: courting lyric bird flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 523, "The Birks of Aberfeldy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #170, pp. 280-281, "The birks of Aberfeldy -- Composed on the spot" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1787)
Roud #5070
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(15), "The Birks of Aberfeldy" ("Bonnie lassie will ye go, will ye go, will ye go"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
LOCSheet, sm1840 371890, "The Birks of Abberfeldy," George Willig (Philadelphia), 1840 (tune)
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(7b), "The Birks of Aberfeldy," unknown, c.1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Birks of Abergeldie" (tune, per Burns)
NOTES [46 words]: Whitelaw: "This was composed by Burns to the old tune of 'The Birks of Abergeldy' in September, 1787, while standing under the falls of Aberfeldy, near Moness, in Perthshire."
Greig #56 p. 3 refers to "a fragment of the old song 'The Birks o' Abergeldie' which Burns adapted." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BrdBiAbe

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