Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Awa' Whigs Awa'

Scottish Poem By Robert Burns

Awa Whigs Awa is a Scottish song whose theme is the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising of 1745. A version was published by Robert Burns in 1789.

Whigs may be considered the forerunners of the Liberals and many blamed them for selling out Scotland's crown, identity and heritage.

Written well after the events it commemorates, it is not a genuine Jacobite song, as is the case with many others now considered in the "classic canon of Jacobite songs," most of which were songs "composed in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but were passed off as contemporary products of the Jacobite risings."


Related Scottish Country Dances

Awa' Whigs Awa'

Awa' Whigs Awa' By Robert Burns

Chorus
Awa' Whigs, awa'!
Awa' Whigs, awa'!
Ye're but a pack o' traitor louns,
Ye'll do nae gude at a'.

Our thrissles flourish'd fresh and fair,
And bonie bloom'd our roses;
But Whigs cam' like a frost in June,
An' wither'd a' our posies.

Chorus

Our ancient crown's fa'en in the dust-
Deil blin' them wi' the stoure o't!
An' write their names in his black beuk,
Wha gae the Whigs the power o't.

Chorus

Our sad decay in church and state
Surpasses my descriving:
The Whigs cam' o'er us for a curse,
An' we hae done wi' thriving.

Chorus

Grim vengeance lang has taen a nap,
But we may see him wauken:
Gude help the day when royal heads
Are hunted like a maukin!

Chorus


Awa' Whigs Awa' Song Video

Awa' Whigs Awa' Song - Information Video
Awa' Whigs Awa'
Awa' Whigs Awa', From A Collection Of Songs, Printed Music, c. 1837


The Online Scots Dictionary Translate Scots To English.
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Text from this original Awa' Whigs Awa' article on Wikipedia.
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