"Comin' Thro' the Rye" is a poem written in 1782 by Robert Burns (1759–1796). It is well known as a traditional children's song, with the words put to the melody of the Scottish Minstrel Common' Frae The Town. This is a variant of the tune to which Auld Lang Syne is usually sung—in fact the melodic shape is practically the same, the difference lying in the tempo and rhythm.
An alternate version by Burns also exists, in which all the instances of "kiss" are replaced by "fuck", and Jenny's "thing" in stanza four is identified as her "cunt".[1][2][3]
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O, Jenny's a' weet,[A] poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't[B] a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Chorus:
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Gin[C] a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?[D]
(chorus)
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl'[E] ken?[F]
(chorus)
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.
(chorus)
Ev'ry Lassie has her laddie,
Nane, they say, have I,
Yet all the lads they smile on me,
When comin' thro' the rye.
The title of the book The Catcher in the Rye comes from the poem's name. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, imagines children playing in a field of rye near the edge of a cliff, and catching them when they start to fall off.[4]
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