Scotlandsmusic

Burns's most famous song, seeming to embody all the qualities for which as a song-writer he is renowned. Yet his actual authorship of the poem is disputed, not least because of his reported admission that he copied the words from a country girl's singing. What seems likely is that the poet revised and transformed those original words, adding such touches of genius as resulted in the song becoming one of his masterpieces. The tune, Major Graham, appeared first in Gow's Strathspeys of 1784.