---
title: "Poortith Cauld and Restless Love"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1793"
tune: "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
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/poortith-cauld-and-restless-love/"
---

# Poortith Cauld and Restless Love

## Song
O poortith cauld, and restless love,  
Ye wrack my peace between ye;  
Yet poortith a’ I could forgive,  
An ’twere na for my Jeanie.

*Chorus*  
O why should Fate sic pleasure have,  
Life’s dearest bands untwining?  
Or why sae sweet a flower as love  
Depend on Fortune’s shining?

The warld’s wealth, when I think on,  
It’s pride and a’ the lave o’t;  
O fie on silly coward man,  
That he should be the slave o’t!

*Chorus*  
O why should Fate sic pleasure have,  
Life’s dearest bands untwining?  
Or why sae sweet a flower as love  
Depend on Fortune’s shining?

Her e’en, sae bonie blue, betray  
How she repays my passion;  
But prudence is her o’erword aye,  
She talks o’ rank and fashion.

*Chorus*  
O why should Fate sic pleasure have,  
Life’s dearest bands untwining?  
Or why sae sweet a flower as love  
Depend on Fortune’s shining?

O wha can prudence think upon,  
And sic a lassie by him?  
O wha can prudence think upon,  
And sae in love as I am?

*Chorus*  
O why should Fate sic pleasure have,  
Life’s dearest bands untwining?  
Or why sae sweet a flower as love  
Depend on Fortune’s shining?

How blest the simple cotter’s fate!  
He woos his artless dearie;  
The silly bogles, wealth and state,  
Can never make him eerie,

*Chorus*  
O why should Fate sic pleasure have,  
Life’s dearest bands untwining?  
Or why sae sweet a flower as love  
Depend on Fortune’s shining?

---

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/poortith-cauld-and-restless-love/