---
title: "Contented Wi’ Little and Cantie Wi’ Mair"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1794"
tune: "Lumps o’ Puddin’"
location: "Dumfries"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/contented-wi-little-and-cantie-wi-mair/"
---

# Contented Wi’ Little and Cantie Wi’ Mair

## Song
*Chorus*  
Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair,  
Whene’er I forgather wi’ Sorrow and Care,  
I gie them a skelp as they’re creeping alang,  
Wi’ a cog o’ gude swats and an auld Scottish sang.

I whiles claw the elbow o’ troublesome thought;  
But Man is a soger, and Life is a faught;  
My mirth and gude humour are coin in my pouch,  
And my Freedom’s my Lairdship nae monarch dare touch.

*Chorus*  
Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair,  
Whene’er I forgather wi’ Sorrow and Care,  
I gie them a skelp as they’re creeping alang,  
Wi’ a cog o’ gude swats and an auld Scottish sang.

A townmond o’ trouble, should that be may fa’,  
A night o’ gude fellowship sowthers it a’:  
When at the blythe end o’ our journey at last,  
Wha the deil ever thinks o’ the road he has past?

*Chorus*  
Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair,  
Whene’er I forgather wi’ Sorrow and Care,  
I gie them a skelp as they’re creeping alang,  
Wi’ a cog o’ gude swats and an auld Scottish sang.

Blind Chance, let her snapper and stoyte on her way;  
Be’t to me, be’t frae me, e’en let the jade gae:  
Come Ease, or come Travail, come Pleasure or Pain,  
My warst word is: “Welcome, and welcome again!”

*Chorus*  
Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair,  
Whene’er I forgather wi’ Sorrow and Care,  
I gie them a skelp as they’re creeping alang,  
Wi’ a cog o’ gude swats and an auld Scottish sang.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/contented-wi-little-and-cantie-wi-mair/