The Twa Corbies

Anonymous, (1100 - 2010)

Original Text

Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 2nd edn. (Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne for Longman and Rees, 1803). PR 1181 .S4 1803 St. Michael's College

1 As I was walking all alane,

2I heard twa corbies making a mane;

3The tane unto the t'other say,

4"Where sall we gang and dine to-day?"

5 "In behint yon auld fail dyke,

6I wot there lies a new slain knight;

7And naebody kens that he lies there,

8But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

9 "His hound is to the hunting gane,

10His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame;

11His lady's ta'en another mate,

12So we may mak our dinner sweet.

13 "Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,

14And I'll pike out his bonny blue een;

15Wi ae lock o his gowden hair

16We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.

17 "Mony a one for him makes mane,

18But nane sall ken where he is gane;

19Oer his white banes, when they are bare,

20The wind sall blaw for evermair."

Notes

1] This ballad was taken down from recitation in the later eighteenth century. It is a Scottish adaptation of the English ballad, The Three Ravens. Back to Line

2] corbies: ravens.
mane: moan. Back to Line

5] fail dyke: turf wall. Back to Line

13] hause bane: neck-bone, collar-bone. Back to Line

15] gowden: golden. Back to Line

16] theek: thatch. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

1803

RPO poem Editors

N. J. Endicott

RPO Edition

2RP.1.77; RPO 1996-2000.

Rhyme

aabb