---
title: "Duncan Gray"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1792"
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/duncan-gray/"
---

# Duncan Gray

## Song
Duncan Gray cam’ here to woo,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,  
On blythe Yule-night when we were fou,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,  
Maggie coost her head fu’ heigh,  
Look’d asklent and unco skeigh,  
Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh;  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.

Duncan fleech’d and Duncan pray’d;  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,  
Meg was deaf as Ailsa Craig,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t:  
Duncan sigh’d baith out and in,  
Grat his e’en baith blear’t an’ blin’,  
Spak o’ lowpin o’er a linn;  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.

Time and Chance are but a tide,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,  
Slighted love is sair to bide,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t:  
Shall I like a fool, quoth he,  
For a haughty hizzie die?  
She may gae to—France for me!  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.

How it comes let doctors tell,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t;  
Meg grew sick, as he grew hale,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.

Something in her bosom wrings,  
For relief a sigh she brings:  
And oh! her een they spak sic things!  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.

Duncan was a lad o’ grace,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t:  
Maggie’s was a piteous case,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t:  
Duncan could na be her death,  
Swelling Pity smoor’d his wrath;  
Now they’re crouse and canty baith,  
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.

---

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/duncan-gray/