ROBERT Burns had a great ability to project himself into the emotional perspectives of women, as some of his most poignant songs/poems prove. In the top song, the protagonist is a deserted woman. In the second, Burns writes, on his own account, the most tender of love songs to his wife.

THE BANKS O’ DOON

Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon,

How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair;

How can ye chant, ye little birds,

And I sae weary fu’ o’ care!

Thou’ll break my heart, thou warbling bird,

That wantons thro’ the flowering thorn:

Thou minds me o’ departed joys,

Departed never to return.

Oft hae I rov’d by bonie Doon,

To see the rose and woodbine twine;

And ilka bird sang o’ its Luve,

And fondly sae did I o’ mine;

Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose,

Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree!

And my fause Luver staw my rose,

But ah! he left the thorn wi’ me.

I LOVE MY JEAN

Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw,

I dearly like the West;

For there the bony Lassie lives,

The Lassie I lo’e best:

There’s wild-woods grow, and rivers row,

And mony a hill between;

But day and night my fancy’s flight

Is ever wi’ my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,

I see her sweet and fair:

I hear her in the tunefu’ birds,

I hear her charm the air:

There’s not a bony flower that springs

By fountain, shaw, or green;

There’s not a bony bird that sings,

But minds me o’ my Jean.