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Bonie Mary



When Mary cam over the border
When Mary cam over the border
As eith 'twas approachin the cunt of a hurchin
Her arse was in sic a disorder

Come cowe me minnie come cowe me;
Come cowe me minnie come cowe me;
The hair o' my erse is grown into my cunt, 
And they canna win to, to mowe me.

But wanton Wattie cam west on't
But wanton Wattie cam west on't
He did it sae tickle, he left nae as meikle
'Sa spider wad bigget a nest on't

And was nae Wattie a Clinker,
He mow'd frae the Queen to the tinkler
Then sat down, in grief, like the Macedon chief
For want o' mae warlds to conquer

And o'what a jewel was Mary!
And o'what a jewel was Mary!
Her face it was fine, and her bosom divine,
And her cunt it was theekit wi'glory

Come cowe me minnie come cowe me;
Come cowe me minnie come cowe me;
The hair o' my erse is grown into my cunt, 
And they canna win to, to mowe me.

Listen

Ralph Riach

About this work

This is a song by Robert Burns. It was written in 1793 and is read here by Ralph Riach.

More about this song

Bonie Mary was sent to Robert Cleghorn, along with Act of Sederunt of the Session, around 25 October 1793.

Burns remarked to Cleghorn that it was, ‘Mair for taiken’ of my violent propensity to B[au]dy’, and that the story had come from one of his friends who met a girl from England.

He acknowledged that the chorus itself was old, but that he had created the verses. The tune is set to ‘Minnie’s ay glowerin o’er me’.

The focus on pubic hair is a common theme in Scottish folk bawdry, and there are a number of examples both in Burns’s work, and in eighteenth-century Scottish literature.

Ralph McLean

Themes for this song

bawdry sex humour

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