Volume II, song 140, page 147 - 'Up in the Morning Early' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west, The drift is driving sairly; Sae loud and shill's I hear the blast, I'm sure it's winter fairly. Up in the morning's no for me, Up in the morning early, When a' the hills are cover'd wi' snaw, I'm sure it is winter fairly.' In this instance 'drift' refers to the snow and 'sairly' means severely or sorely. 'Shill' has a number of different definitions: here it means shrill or noisy. The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition. In Burns's notes on the 'Museum', he writes that 'the chorus of this is old; the two stanzas are mine'. Whilst Burns wrote and collected a large number of the songs included in the 'Museum', in many instances he reworked an already existing song.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503336

Title

Volume II, song 140, page 147 - 'Up in the Morning Early' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 130 x 211 mm