Jean

Robert BurnsScottish Romantic eraPoem

OF a’ the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly like the west,
For there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lassie I lo’e best:
There wild woods grow, and rivers row,
And monie a hill between;
But day and night my fancy’s flight
Is ever wi’ my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,
I see her sweet and fair:
I hear her in the tunefu’ birds,
I hear her charm the air:
There’s not a bonnie flower that springs
By fountain, shaw, or green;
There’s not a bonnie bird that sings,
But minds me o’ my Jean.

Cultural reading

Reading the poem

Of all the directions the wind can blow the speaker prefers the west, where the lass he loves best lives beyond wild woods, rivers and many a hill, and he says that every bonnie flower that springs and every bonnie bird that sings puts him in mind of his Jean.

Language notes

Text and edition

The source presents two balanced eight-line stanzas without an excerpt marker; they are treated as the complete anthology item.