Distinct from either of the foregoing groups are several songs in
narrative form, told as a rule from the point of view of an onlooker,
but hardly inferior to the others in vitality. In them the personal or
dramatic emotion is replaced by a keen sense of the humor of the
situation.


DUNCAN GRAY

Duncan Gray came here to woo,
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
On blythe Yule night when we were fou, [drunk]
Ha, ha, the wooing o't.
Maggie coost her head fu' heigh, [cast, high]
Look'd asklent and unco skeigh, [askance, very skittish]
Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh; [Made, aloof]
Ha, ha, the wooing o't.

Duncan fleech'd, and Duncan pray'd; [wheedled]
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Meg was deaf as Ailsa Craig,
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Duncan sigh'd baith out and in,
Grat his een baith bleer't and blin', [Wept, eyes both]
Spak o' lowpin o'er a linn; [leaping, waterfall]
Ha, ha, the wooing o't.

Time and chance are but a tide,
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Slighted love is sair to bide, [sore, endure]