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  • The Silver Tassie
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The Silver Tassie

Robert Burns

The Silver Tassie

Go bring to me a pint o wine,
And fill it in a silver tassie;
That I may drink, before I go,
A service to my bonie lassie:
The boat rocks at the pier o Leith,
Fu loud the wind blaws frae the Ferry,
The ship rides by the Berwick-law,
And I maun leave my bony Mary.

The trumpets sound, the banners fly,
The glittering spears are rankèd ready,
The shouts o war are heard afar,
The battle closes deep and bloody.
It’s not the roar o sea or shore,
Wad make me langer wish to tarry;
Nor shouts o war that’s heard afar –
It’s leaving thee, my bony Mary!


Robert Burns

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18th century poems drinking leave-taking scottish poems unrequited love war
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Robert Burns1759 - 1796

If ever a poet understood the character of his nation, he was Robert Burns. The language he was most fluent in wasn’t so much Scots or English – it was the language of the heart.
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