Ca the Yowes

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SRD
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Ca the Yowes

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Ca' the ewes tae the knowes
Ca' them where the heather grows
Ca' them where the burnie rowes
My bonnie dearie

Hark a mavis evening song
Soundin' Cluden's woods amang
Then a foldin' let us gang
My bonnie dearie

We'll gae doon by Cludenside
Through the hazels spreading wide
All the ways that sweetly glide
To the moon sae clearly

Doon the Cluden silent hours
All in moonshine midnight hours
All the dewy buddin' flowers
The fairies dance so cheery

Ghaist nor boggle shall thou fear
Thou art to love Heaven so dear
Naught of ill shall come you near
My bonnie dearie

Fair and lovely as thou art
Thou hast stolen my very heart
I can die but canna part
Wi' my bonnie dearie

Not one of mine, it's attributed to Burns, but it's a recent addition to Jon Boden's 'A Folk Song a Day' project and I thought the simplicity of the dialect verse rather good and I also appreciate the way he manages to tread the fine line of romance without ever quite falling into sentimentality.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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marymary
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Re: Ca the Yowes

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Not one of his though. There is a cairn dedicated to Tibby Pagan(?) in Muirkirk who actually did compose it but made the mistake of not publishing it. Some of what is considered to be written by Burns was actually just gathered by him and published under his name. The people of Muirkirk were apparently annoyed enough to put in the cairn in Tibby's honour. I knew nothing about this until I was on a hillwalking week based at Kames.
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Re: Ca the Yowes

Post by SRD »

Interesting, a trawl through the net (Google is my friend) found this.

With following:
Pagan's name has become prominent in the twentieth century as a result of her increasingly being represented as the author of a version of 'Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes', most usually the version Burns claimed to have had taken down from the singing of a Rev. Clunzie and to have 'mended' and sent to James Johnson for his Musical Museum. A comparison of the version attributed to Pagan in "An Anthology of Scottish Women Poets" (K164) with the later version of the song much reworked by Burns and sent to George Thomson (included in "Songs of Scotland", WP32-3, where both versions are attributed to Burns), makes it clear that the Pagan version is in its nature an oral folk-song of the traditional love-dialogue or courtship type. Further comparison with Pagan's "Collected Poems" (which does not include this song) suggests that, if the song was indeed in her repertoire, then she was the transmitter of an existing song as opposed to its composer or even adapter, for this courtship folksong is much more sophisticated in idea and expression that any of the verses printed under Pagan's own name. To say this is not to denigrate Pagan or her contribution to the eighteenth-century song tradition. She is representative of good local folk poets and singers who worked in the tradition of transmitting and adapting existing songs and airs for their own local purposes. It shows, however, how misunderstandings and misinformation can arise as a result of the marginalisation and resultant declining knowledge of song traditions and their differences.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Re: Ca the Yowes

Post by marymary »

Interesting and further proof if it were needed that oral history isn't worth the paper it's written on.
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Re: Ca the Yowes

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It's cross referencing that creates a firmer picture, whether oral or written, can you imagine what a visitor would make of society here if they only had one of the newspapers to use as reference?
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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noescape
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Re: Ca the Yowes

Post by noescape »

I came second in a Burns singing competition singing this song in primary school - my prize was a book of Burns poetry/songs
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Re: Ca the Yowes

Post by marymary »

Ist prize was?
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noescape
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Re: Ca the Yowes

Post by noescape »

the same book I think :?
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