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Tibby I hae seen the day

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/02/124
Alt. number
3.6288
Date
1788
On display
Yes
Creator
Burns, Robert (Author)

Description

Tibby I hae seen the day.

R.B.'s notes at the end: "This song betrays itself to be a boyish essay, as it is very incorrect. 'Twas composed some time before I began to write MAN". 8 four-line verses and chorus.

Burns composed this song at the age of eighteen. The song is sung to the tune, Invercauld's Reel. "Tibby" is Isabella Steven of Littlehill farm near Lochlie where Burns' father farmed from 1777.

The main theme of this song concerns Tibby's preference for prosperous suitors. Burns says that "because I'm poor", Tibby is disregarding him as shown in the two lines "Yestreen I met you on the moor, Ye spak na, but gaed by like stoure!". Tibby cares not for the Poet because she "snufft an gae your head a cast -" and that since she has money (she came into a legacy of £75) she "can please me at a wink."

It has been suggested that "one night Robert Burns called at her home and the door was answered by a member of the household who said that Tibbie was entertaining another gentleman", hence the circumstances for the composition.

Archive information


Hierarchy

  1. Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs ( )
  2. Tibby I hae seen the day