Volume IV, song 349, pages 360 and 361 - 'Lovely Davies' -...
Volume IV, song 349, pages 360 and 361 - 'Lovely Davies' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1 and Verse 2 (to the tune of 'Miss Muir'): 'O how shall I, unskilfu', try The Poets occupation The tunefu' powers, in happy hours, That whispers inspiration, Even they maun dare an effort mair Than aught they ever gave us, Or they rehearse in equal verse, The charms of lovely Davies. Each eye it chears when she appears, Like Phoebus in the morning, When past the show'r, and every flower The garden is adoring: As the wretch looks o'er Siberia's shore, When winter bound the wave is; Sae droops our heart when we maun part Frae charming, lovely Davies.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
In this song, Burns playfully takes on the character of an unskilled suitor who would dearly like to be a poet in order to do justice to the beauty and charms of his love. Performed to the tune of 'Miss Muir', Glen (1900), quoting Stenhouse, states that the lyrics were adapted to this melody at Burns's own request. Glen also writes that the tune was probably not published until the Scots Musical Museum appeared.
Volume IV, song 349, pages 360 and 361 - 'Lovely Davies' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)