---
title: "Whistle O’er the Lave O’t"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1789"
location: "Ellisland"
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/whistle-oer-the-lave-ot/"
---

# Whistle O’er the Lave O’t

## Poem
First when Maggie was my care,  
Heav’n, I thought, was in her air,  
Now we’re married—speir nae mair,  
But whistle o’er the lave o’t!

Meg was meek, and Meg was mild,  
Sweet and harmless as a child—  
Wiser men than me’s beguil’d;  
Whistle o’er the lave o’t!

How we live, my Meg and me,  
How we love, and how we gree,  
I care na by how few may see—  
Whistle o’er the lave o’t!

Wha I wish were maggot’s meat,  
Dish’d up in her winding-sheet,  
I could write—but Meg maun see’t—  
Whistle o’er the lave o’t!

---

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/whistle-oer-the-lave-ot/