two lines; a model for _My Nannie O_ has been found in an anonymous
eighteenth-century fragment as well as in a song of Ramsay's, but
neither contributes more than the phrase which names the tune as well
as the words; _The Rigs o' Barley_ was suggested by a verse of an old
song:

O, corn rigs and rye rigs,
O, corn rigs are bonie;
And whene'er you meet a bonie lass
Preen up her cockernonie.

_Handsome Nell_, _Mary Morison_, _Will Ye Go to the Indies_, _The
Gloomy Night_, and _My Nannie's Awa_ are entirely original; and a
comparison of their poetical quality with those having their model or
starting point in an older song will show that, however brilliantly
Burns acquitted himself in his task of refurbishing traditional
material, he was in no way dependent upon such material for
inspiration.

From what has been said of the occasions of these verses, however, it
is clear that inspiration from the outside was not lacking. The
traditional association of wine, woman, and song certainly held for
Burns, nearly all his lyrics being the outcome of his devotion to at
least two of these, some of them, like the following, to all three.


YESTREEN I HAD A PINT O' WINE

Yestreen I had a pint o' wine, [Last night]
A place where body saw na'; [nobody saw]