---
title: "The Lad They Ca’Jumpin John"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1788"
location: "Mossgiel"
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/the-lad-they-cajumpin-john/"
---

# The Lad They Ca’Jumpin John

## Poem
Her daddie forbad, her minnie forbad  
Forbidden she wadna be:  
She wadna trow’t the browst she brew’d,  
Wad taste sae bitterlie.

*Chorus*  
The lang lad they ca’Jumpin John  
Beguil’d the bonie lassie,  
The lang lad they ca’Jumpin John  
Beguil’d the bonie lassie.

A cow and a cauf, a yowe and a hauf,  
And thretty gude shillin’s and three;  
A vera gude tocher, a cotter-man’s dochter,  
The lass wi’ the bonie black e’e.

*Chorus*  
The lang lad they ca’Jumpin John  
Beguil’d the bonie lassie,  
The lang lad they ca’Jumpin John  
Beguil’d the bonie lassie.

---

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/the-lad-they-cajumpin-john/