Preen up her cockernonie.
[Handsome Nell], [Mary Morison], [Will Ye Go to the Indies], [The Gloomy Nigh]t, and [My Nannie's Awa] are entirely original; and a comparison of their poetical quality with those having their model or starting point in an older song will show that, however brilliantly Burns acquitted himself in his task of refurbishing traditional material, he was in no way dependent upon such material for inspiration.
From what has been said of the occasions of these verses, however, it is clear that inspiration from the outside was not lacking. The traditional association of wine, woman, and song certainly held for Burns, nearly all his lyrics being the outcome of his devotion to at least two of these, some of them, like the following, to all three.
YESTREEN I HAD A PINT O' WINE
Yestreen I had a pint o' wine, Last night
A place where body saw na'; nobody saw
Yestreen lay on this breast o' mine
The gowden locks of Anna. golden
The hungry Jew in wilderness
Rejoicing o'er his manna,