---
title: "My Collier Laddie"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
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/my-collier-laddie/"
---

# My Collier Laddie

## Poem
“Whare live ye, my bonie lass?  
And tell me what they ca’ ye;”  
“My name,” she says, “is mistress Jean,  
And I follow the Collier laddie.”  
“My name, she says, &c.

“See you not yon hills and dales  
The sun shines on sae brawlie;  
They a’ are mine, and they shall be thine,  
Gin ye’ll leave your Collier laddie.”  
“They a’ are mine, &c.

“Ye shall gang in gay attire,  
Weel buskit up sae gaudy;  
And ane to wait on every hand,  
Gin ye’ll leave your Collier laddie.”  
“And ane to wait, &c.

“Tho’ ye had a’ the sun shines on,  
And the earth conceals sae lowly,  
I wad turn my back on you and it a’,  
And embrace my Collier laddie.”     “I wad turn my back, &c.

“I can win my five pennies in a day,  
An’ spen’t at night fu’ brawlie:  
And make my bed in the collier’s neuk,  
And lie down wi’ my Collier laddie.”     “And make my bed, &c.

“Love for love is the bargain for me,  
Tho’ the wee cot-house should haud me;  
and the warld before me to win my bread,  
And fair fa’ my Collier laddie!”  
“And the warld before me, &c.

---

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/my-collier-laddie/