---
title: "O Can Ye Labour Lea?"
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/o-can-ye-labour-lea/"
---

# O Can Ye Labour Lea?

## Poem
*Chorus*  
O can ye labour lea, young man,  
O can ye labour lea?  
It fee nor bountith shall us twine  
Gin ye can labour lea.

I fee’d a man at Michaelmas,  
Wi’ airle pennies three;  
But a’ the faut I had to him,  
He could na labour lea,

*Chorus*  
O can ye labour lea, young man,  
O can ye labour lea?  
It fee nor bountith shall us twine  
Gin ye can labour lea.

O clappin’s gude in Febarwar,  
An’ kissin’s sweet in May;  
But my delight’s the ploughman lad,  
That weel can labour lea,

*Chorus*  
O can ye labour lea, young man,  
O can ye labour lea?  
It fee nor bountith shall us twine  
Gin ye can labour lea.

O kissin is the key o’ luve,  
And clappin’ is the lock;  
An’ makin’ o’s the best thing yet,  
That e’er a young thing gat.

*Chorus*  
O can ye labour lea, young man,  
O can ye labour lea?  
It fee nor bountith shall us twine  
Gin ye can labour lea.

---

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/o-can-ye-labour-lea/