Famous Lass Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Lass poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous lass poems. These examples illustrate what a famous lass poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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It was a Lover and his Lass

by William Shakespeare
 IT was a lover and his lass, 
 With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, 
That o'er the green corn-field did pass, 
 In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, 
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; 
Sweet lovers love the spring. 

Between the acres of the rye, 
 With a hey,...Read more of this...

Over The Range

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Little bush maiden, wondering-eyed, 
Playing alone in the creek-bed dry, 
In the small green flat on every side 
Walled in by the Moonbi ranges high; 
Tell me the tale of your lonely life 
'Mid the great grey forests that know no change. 
"I never have left my home," she said, 
"I have never been over the Moonbi Range. 
"Father...Read more of this...

The Old Armchair

by Robert William Service
 In all the pubs from Troon to Ayr
Grandfather's father would repair
With Bobby Burns, a drouthy pair,
 The glass to clink;
And oftenwhiles, when not too "fou,"
They'd roar a bawdy stave or two,
From midnight muk to morning dew,
 And drink and drink.

And Grandfather, with eye aglow
And proper pride, would often show
An old armchair where long ago
 The Bard would sit;
Reciting there...Read more of this...

524. Song—The lass that made the bed to me

by Robert Burns
 WHEN Januar’ wind was blawing cauld,
 As to the north I took my way,
The mirksome night did me enfauld,
 I knew na where to lodge till day:


By my gude luck a maid I met,
 Just in the middle o’ my care,
And kindly she did me invite
 To walk into a chamber fair.


I bow’d fu’ low unto this maid,
 And...Read more of this...

The Bonnie Lass o Ruily

by William Topaz McGonagall
 'Twas in the village of Ruily there lived a bonnie lass
With red, pouting lips which few lasses could surpass,
And her eyes were as azure the blue sky,
Which caused Donald McNeill to heave many a love sigh 

Beyond the township of Ruily she never had been,
This pretty maid with tiny feet and aged eighteen;
And when Donald would ask her to...Read more of this...

122. The Lass o' Ballochmyle

by Robert Burns
 ’TWAS even—the dewy fields were green,
 On every blade the pearls hang;
The zephyr wanton’d round the bean,
 And bore its fragrant sweets alang:
 In ev’ry glen the mavis sang,
All nature list’ning seem’d the while,
 Except where greenwood echoes rang,
Amang the braes o’ Ballochmyle.


With careless step I onward stray’d,
 My heart rejoic’d in nature’s joy,
When, musing in a lonely glade,
...Read more of this...

The Record

by Robert William Service
 Fearing that she might go one day
With some fine fellow of her choice,
I called her from her childish play,
And made a record of her voice.
And now that she is truly gone,
I hear it sweet and crystal clear
From out my wheezy gramophone:
 "I love you, Daddy dear."

Indeed it's true she went away,
But Oh she went all, all alone;
Into the dark...Read more of this...

192. Song—The Bonie Lass of Albany

by Robert Burns
 MY 1 heart is wae, and unco wae,
 To think upon the raging sea,
That roars between her gardens green
 An’ the bonie Lass of Albany.


This lovely maid’s of royal blood
 That ruled Albion’s kingdoms three,
But oh, alas! for her bonie face,
 They’ve wrang’d the Lass of Albany.


In the rolling tide of spreading Clyde
 There sits an isle of high...Read more of this...

553. Song—O lay thy loof in mine lass

by Robert Burns
 Chorus—O lay thy loof in mine, lass,
In mine, lass, in mine, lass;
And swear on thy white hand, lass,
 That thou wilt be my ain.


A SLAVE to Love’s unbounded sway,
He aft has wrought me meikle wae;
But now he is my deadly fae,
 Unless thou be my ain.
 O lay thy loof, &c.


There’s mony a lass has broke my rest,
That for...Read more of this...

159. Song—My Lord a-Hunting he is gane

by Robert Burns
 Chorus.—MY lady’s gown, there’s gairs upon’t,
And gowden flowers sae rare upon’t;
But Jenny’s jimps and jirkinet,
My lord thinks meikle mair upon’t.


My lord a-hunting he is gone,
But hounds or hawks wi’ him are nane;
By Colin’s cottage lies his game,
If Colin’s Jenny be at hame.
 My lady’s gown, &c.


My lady’s white, my lady’s red,
And kith and kin o’ Cassillis’ blude;
But her ten-pund...Read more of this...

My Longshore Lass

by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Far in the mellow western sky,
Above the restless harbor bar,
A beacon on the coast of night,
Shines out a calm, white evening star;
But your deep eyes, my 'longshore lass,
Are brighter, clearer far. 

The glory of the sunset past
Still gleams upon the water there,
But all its splendor cannot match
The wind-blown brightness of your hair;
Not any sea-maid's floating locks
Of gold are half...Read more of this...

12. Song—The Lass of Cessnock Banks

by Robert Burns
 ON Cessnock banks a lassie dwells;
 Could I describe her shape and mein;
Our lasses a’ she far excels,
 An’ she has twa sparkling roguish een.


She’s sweeter than the morning dawn,
 When rising Phoebus first is seen,
And dew-drops twinkle o’er the lawn;
 An’ she has twa sparkling roguish een.


She’s stately like yon youthful ash,
 That grows the cowslip braes between,
And...Read more of this...

377. Song—The Country Lass

by Robert Burns
 IN simmer, when the hay was mawn,
 And corn wav’d green in ilka field,
While claver blooms white o’er the lea
 And roses blaw in ilka beild!
Blythe Bessie in the milking shiel,
 Says—“I’ll be wed, come o’t what will”:
Out spake a dame in wrinkled eild;
 “O’ gude advisement comes nae ill.


“It’s ye hae wooers mony ane,
 And lassie, ye’re but...Read more of this...

Celebates

by Robert William Service
 They must not wed the Doctor said,
 For they were far from strong,
And children of their marriage bed
 Might not live overlong.
And yet each eve I saw them pass
 With rapt and eager air,
As fit a seeming lad and lass
 As ought to pair.

For twenty years I went away
 And scoured the China Sea,
Then homing came and found that...Read more of this...

The Seaman's Song

by Victor Hugo
 ("Adieu, patrie.") 
 
 {Bk. V. ix., Aug. 1, 1852.} 


 Farewell the strand, 
 The sails expand 
 Above! 
 Farewell the land 
 We love! 
 Farewell, old home where apples swing! 
 Farewell, gay song-birds on the wing! 
 
 Farewell, riff-raff 
 Of Customs' clerks who laugh 
 And shout: 
 "Farewell!" We'll quaff 
...Read more of this...

At The Golden Pig

by Robert William Service
 Where once with lads I scoffed my beer
 The landlord's lass I've wed.
Now I am lord and master here;--
 Thank God! the old man's dead.
I stand behind a blooming bar
 With belly like a tub,
And pals say, seeing my cigar:
 'Bill's wed a pub.'

I wonder now if I did well,
 My freedom for to lose;
Knowing my wife is fly...Read more of this...

514. Song—The Lass o' Ecclefechan

by Robert Burns
 GAT ye me, O gat ye me,
 O gat ye me wi’ naething?
Rock an reel, and spinning wheel,
 A mickle quarter basin:
Bye attour my Gutcher has
 A heich house and a laich ane,
A’ forbye my bonie sel,
 The toss o’ Ecclefechan.


O haud your tongue now, Lucky Lang,
 O haud your tongue and jauner
I held the gate till you I...Read more of this...

70. Epistle to the Rev. John M'Math

by Robert Burns
 WHILE at the stook the shearers cow’r
To shun the bitter blaudin’ show’r,
Or in gulravage rinnin scowr
 To pass the time,
To you I dedicate the hour
 In idle rhyme.


My musie, tir’d wi’ mony a sonnet
On gown, an’ ban’, an’ douse black bonnet,
Is grown right eerie now she’s done it,
 Lest they should blame her,
An’ rouse their holy thunder on it
...Read more of this...

11. Song—Here's to thy health my bonie lass

by Robert Burns
 HERE’S to thy health, my bonie lass,
 Gude nicht and joy be wi’ thee;
I’ll come nae mair to thy bower-door,
 To tell thee that I lo’e thee.
O dinna think, my pretty pink,
 But I can live without thee:
I vow and swear I dinna care,
 How lang ye look about ye.


Thou’rt aye sae free informing me,
 Thou hast nae mind...Read more of this...

217. Song—The Lad they ca' Jumpin John

by Robert Burns
 HER daddie forbad, her minnie forbad
 Forbidden she wadna be:
She wadna trow’t the browst she brew’d,
 Wad taste sae bitterlie.


Chorus.—The lang lad they ca’Jumpin John
 Beguil’d the bonie lassie,
The lang lad they ca’Jumpin John
 Beguil’d the bonie lassie.


A cow and a cauf, a yowe and a hauf,
 And thretty gude shillin’s and three;
A vera gude tocher, a cotter-man’s dochter,
...Read more of this...

509. Song—Fragment—There was a Bonie Lass

by Robert Burns
 THERE was a bonie lass, and a bonie, bonie lass,
 And she lo’ed her bonie laddie dear;
Till War’s loud alarms tore her laddie frae her arms,
 Wi’ mony a sigh and tear.
Over sea, over shore, where the cannons loudly roar,
 He still was a stranger to fear;
And nocht could him quail, or his bosom assail,
 But the bonie lass...Read more of this...

The Bonnie Lass o Dundee

by William Topaz McGonagall
 O' a' the toons that I've been in,
I dearly love Dundee,
It's there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lass I love to see. Her face is fair, broon is her hair,
And dark blue is her e'e,
And aboon a' the lasses e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee. 

I see her in my night dreams,
Wi'...Read more of this...

290. Song—A Waukrife Minnie

by Robert Burns
 WHARE are you gaun, my bonie lass,
 Whare are you gaun, my hinnie?
She answered me right saucilie,
 “An errand for my minnie.”


O whare live ye, my bonie lass,
 O whare live ye, my hinnie?
“By yon burnside, gin ye maun ken,
 In a wee house wi’ my minnie.”


But I foor up the glen at e’en.
 To see my bonie lassie;
And...Read more of this...

460. Song—The Lovely Lass o' Inverness

by Robert Burns
 THE LOVELY lass o’ Inverness,
 Nae joy nor pleasure can she see;
For, e’en to morn she cries, alas!
 And aye the saut tear blin’s her e’e.


“Drumossie moor, Drumossie day—
 A waefu’ day it was to me!
For there I lost my father dear,
 My father dear, and brethren three.


“Their winding-sheet the bluidy clay,
 Their graves are growin’ green to see;
And...Read more of this...

550. Song—A Lass wi' a Tocher

by Robert Burns
 AWA’ wi’ your witchcraft o’ Beauty’s alarms,
The slender bit Beauty you grasp in your arms,
O, gie me the lass that has acres o’ charms,
O, gie me the lass wi’ the weel-stockit farms.


Chorus.—Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher,
Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher;
Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher;
 The nice yellow guineas for me.


Your...Read more of this...

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