Mary Morison

DESCRIPTION: "O, Mary, at thy window be, It is the wish'd, the trysted hour; Those smiles... let me see...." When he was at a dance, he sighs because the women are not Mary. He hopes she won't break his heart; "A thought ungentle canna be The thought o' Mary Morison"
AUTHOR: words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: before 1785 (source: Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
JennieEngelsDearLittleShamrockSongster, pp. 70-71, "Mary Morison" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #30, pp. 31-32, "McPherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1784 or earlier)
Roud #31034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan Davison" (tune)
NOTES [136 words]: According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 245, says: "Mary Morison (1771-91). A tombstone in the churchyard at Mauchline maintains she was the daughter of Adjutant John Morison of the 104th Regiment, and that she was the poet's 'bonnie Mary'. Local tradition has it that she met the poet once only. She died of consumption. Her sister was stated by the Reverend Dr Edgar of Mauchline to have said she was the Mary of the poem 'Mary Morison'. Most authorities, however, claim that was the name used by Burns for Alison Begbie, since Burns called the song 'one of my juvenile works', a term he was unlikely to apply to a ong written in 1784/5, when the girl would be about fourteen, and twelve years younger than the poet." - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: JEMarMor

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