I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu' gatherin' gear; [property]
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho' three times doubled fairly,
That happy night was worth them a',
Amang the rigs o' barley.
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonnie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Amang the rigs wi' Annie.
2. Mossgiel
On the death of their father, Robert and Gilbert Burns moved with the
family to the farm of Mossgiel in the next parish of Mauchline. By
putting in a claim for arrears of wages, they succeeded in drawing
enough from the wreck of their father's estate to supply a scanty
stock for the new venture. The records of the first summer show the
poet in anything but a happy frame of mind. His health was miserable;
and the loosening of his moral principles, which he ascribes to the
influence of a young sailor he had met at Irvine, bore fruit in the
birth to him of an illegitimate daughter by a servant girl, Elizabeth
Paton. The verses which carry allusion to this affair are illuminating
for his character. One group is devout and repentant; the other marked
sometimes by cynical bravado, sometimes by a note of exultation. Both
may be regarded as genuine enough expressions of moods which
alternated throughout his life, and which corresponded to conflicting
sides of his nature.
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