I Once Was a Maid By Robert Burns

I Once Was a Maid

By Robert Burns

I once was a maid, tho' I cannot tell when, 

And still my delight is in proper young men; 

Some one of a troop of dragoons was my daddie, 

No wonder I'm fond of a sodger laddie, 

The first of my loves was a swaggering blade, 

To rattle the thundering drum was his trade; 

His leg was so tight, and his cheek was so ruddy, 

Transported I was with my sodger laddie. 

But the godly old chaplain left him in the lurch; 

The sword I forsook for the sake of the church: 

He ventur'd the soul, and I risked the body, 

'Twas then I proved false to my sodger laddie. 

Full soon I grew sick of my sanctified sot, 

The regiment at large for a husband I got; 

From the gilded spontoon to the fife I was ready, 

I asked no more but a sodger laddie. 

But the peace it reduc'd me to beg in despair, 

Till I met old boy in a Cunningham fair, 

His rags regimental, they flutter'd so gaudy, 

My heart it rejoic'd at a sodger laddie. 

And now I have liv'd - I know not how long, 

And still I can join in a cup and a song; 

But whilst with both hands I can hold the glass steady, 

Here's to thee, my hero, my sodger laddie.