---
title: "Had I the Wyte? She Bade Me"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1795"
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/had-i-the-wyte-she-bade-me/"
---

# Had I the Wyte? She Bade Me

## Poem
Had I the wyte, had I the wyte,  
Had I the wyte? she bade me;  
She watch’d me by the hie-gate side,  
And up the loan she shaw’d me.

And when I wadna venture in,  
A coward loon she ca’d me:  
Had Kirk an’ State been in the gate,  
I’d lighted when she bade me.

Sae craftilie she took me ben,  
And bade me mak nae clatter;  
“For our ramgunshoch, glum gudeman  
Is o’er ayont the water.”

Whae’er shall say I wanted grace,  
When I did kiss and dawte her,  
Let him be planted in my place,  
Syne say, I was the fautor.

Could I for shame, could I for shame,  
Could I for shame refus’d her;  
And wadna manhood been to blame,  
Had I unkindly used her!

He claw’d her wi’ the ripplin-kame,  
And blae and bluidy bruis’d her;  
When sic a husband was frae hame,  
What wife but wad excus’d her!

I dighted aye her e’en sae blue,  
An’ bann’d the cruel randy,  
And weel I wat, her willin’ mou  
Was sweet as sugar-candie.

At gloamin-shot, it was I wot,  
I lighted on the Monday;  
But I cam thro’ the Tyseday’s dew,  
To wanton Willie’s brandy.

---

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/had-i-the-wyte-she-bade-me/