The Lassie Gath'ring Nits
There was a lass, and a bonie lass, A gath'ring nits did gang; She pu'd them heigh, she pu'd them laigh, She pu'd them whare they hang. Till tir'd at length, she laid her down, An' sleept the wood amang; Whan by there cam three lusty lads, Three lusty lads an' strang. The first did kiss her rosy lips, He thought it was nae wrang; The second lous'd her bodice fair, Fac'd up wi' London whang. An' what the third did to the lass, I's no put in this sang; But the lassie wauken'd in a fright, An' says, I hae sleept lang.
The Lassie Gath'ring Nits - meaning Summary
Unexpected Rural Encounter
The poem tells, in plain rural Scots, of a young woman gathering nuts who falls asleep in the woods. Three men arrive: one kisses her, a second pulls at her bodice, and the poem deliberately omits what the third does, implying something worse. The girl wakes frightened and claims she has slept long. The narrative compresses a single episode into a brief, suggestive tableau that leaves the most serious action unnamed, forcing the reader to infer the girl's vulnerability and the likely violation she has experienced.
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