''Handsome Nell'' was the first song written by

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

, often treated as a poem, that was first published in the last volume of

James Johnson James Johnson may refer to: Artists, actors, authors, and musicians *James Austin Johnson (born 1989), American comedian & actor, ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member *James B. Johnson (born 1944), author of science nonfiction novels *James P. John ...

Scots Musical Museum The ''Scots Musical Museum'' was an influential collection of traditional folk music of Scotland published from 1787 to 1803. While it was not the first collection of Scottish folk songs and music, the six volumes with 100 songs in each collected ...

1803 Events * January 1 – The first edition of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's ''Almanach des gourmands'', the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris. * January 5 – William Symington demonstrates his ...

(No.551) with an untitled tune. Burns recorded in

holograph An autograph or holograph is a manuscript or document written in its author's or composer's hand. The meaning of autograph as a document penned entirely by the author of its content, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by a copyist o ...

on page three of his first Commonplace Book that he wrote the song or ''Rhyme'' at the age of only fifteen whilst living at Mount Oliphant Farm, it is regarded as his earliest production, inspired by a farm servant aged fourteen, named either Nelly Kilpatrick or

Nelly Blair Nelly Blair, later Nelly Smith (17591820) is sometimes suggested as being Scottish poet Robert Burns' first love. The true identity of Nell Burns himself did not identify his 'Handsome Nell' by name. Nelly Kilpatrick has been suggested as being ...

. Some confusion exists as he also gave his age as 16 in his autobiographical letter to Dr. Moore; the autumn of 1774 is generally accepted.

The song

In the song, by 1783 set to the tune ''I am a man unmarried'', beauty is relegated to secondary importance and female virtue, grace, innocence and modesty are made out to be more desirable than looks alone. ''Handsome Nell'' was the first written of Burns's many love songs, marking in words the start of his preoccupation with women and love. It was not published during Burns's lifetime although it figured in his first

commonplace book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...

and in the Stair Manuscript that he gave to Mrs Alexander Stewart of Stair. It was therefore not included in the 1786 ''Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect'' or in any of the later editions of

1787 Events January–March * January 9 – The North Carolina General Assembly authorizes nine commissioners to purchase of land for the seat of Chatham County. The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro), for ...

, 1793 and 1794 and was likewise absent from the

Glenriddell Manuscripts The ''Glenriddell Manuscripts'' is an extensive collection written in holograph by Robert Burns and an amanuensis of his letters, poems and a few songs in two volumes produced for his then friend Captain Robert Riddell, Laird of what is now ...

of 1791.

The identity of Handsome Nell

Burns himself did not identify her by her surname and the first name he gave, Nelly or Nellie, is used as a nickname for "Helen." Some significant doubts exist about the actual identity of Burns's first romantic love. It was thought at first to be

and an unsigned letter to ''The Scotsman'' in 1828 testified to this. Burns's youngest sister,

Isobel Isobel, is the Scottish form of the female given name Isabel. It originates from the medieval form of the name Elisabeth (Hebrew Elisheba). Isobel is a feminine given name. People named Isobel include: * Isobel of Huntingdon (1199-1251), Scottish ...

, however gave the name Nelly Kilpatrick to Robert Chambers in her eightieth year and this information must at best have been second hand, for

was only three years old in 1774 and serious doubt must be cast on her recollections from this stage in her life. Isobel stated that Nelly Kilpatrick was the daughter of the blacksmith of Perclewan Mill. Nelly Kilpatrick would only have been only a few weeks younger than Robert, however he written that his Nell was a year younger than himself. It was not until the Robert Chambers's edition of 1851 that Nelly Kilpatrick was substituted for Nelly Blair, so Allan Cunningham (1834), Robert Chambers (1838) and John Wilson (1846) do not credit her as being Burns's first love interest.

The background to the song

When

was 15 he met "Handsome Nell", his first young love, a ''"bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass"'', although he apparently never told her of his love. Nelly Kilpatrick's married name was Nelly Bone. Nelly and Robert are first recorded to have met when

William Burnes William Burnes or William Burness (11 November 1721 – 13 February 1784) was the father of the poet Robert Burns. He was born at either Upper Kinmonth or Clochnahill Farm, Dunnottar, Kincardineshire, and trained as a gardener at Inverugie Cast ...

hired some extra help to bring in the harvest while they were at nearby Mount Oliphant Farm and Burns came to be paired with her, following the Ayrshire custom of that time. It has been suggested that Nelly Kilpatrick attended the country dancing school at Dalrymple when Burns was in his seventeenth year. In his autobiographical letter to Dr. Moore he wrote: ''"You know our country custom of coupling a man and a woman together as Partners in the labors of Harvest. In my fifteenth autumn, my Partner was a bewitching creature who just counted an autumn less ... she altogether unwittingly to herself, initiated me in a certain delicious Passion .. Indeed, I did not not well know myself I liked so much to loiter behind with her when returning in the evening from our labours; why the tones of her voice made my heart-strings thrill like an Aeolian harp, and particularly why my pulse beat such a furious rantann when I looked and fingered over her hand to pick out the nettle-stings and thistles. Among her other love-inspiring qualifications, she sung sweetly, and 'twas her favourite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme. Thus with me began Love and Poesy; which at times have been my only, and till within this last twelvemonth have been my highest enjoyment.''"

Composition & criticism

The Scots Musical Museum, Volume I, front

"''The following composition," says Burns, in his

Commonplace Book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...

, "..was the first of my performances, and done at an early period of my life, when my heart glowed with honest warm simplicity, unacquainted and uncorrupted with the ways of a wicked world. The performance is, indeed, very puerile and silly, but I am always pleased with it, as it recalls to my mind those happy days when my heart was yet honest, and my tongue was sincere. The subject of it was a young girl, who really deserved all the praises I have bestowed on her. I not only had this opinion of her then—but I actually think so still, now that the spell is long since broken, and the enchantment at an end.''" Burns had written "Handsome Nell" whilst the family lived at Mount Oliphant Farm, near Alloway in the autumn of 1774. In the first

written at

Ellisland Farm Ellisland Farm lies about 6.5 mi/10.4 km northwest of Dumfries near the village of Auldgirth, located in the Parish of Dunscore, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The complex is a museum in the farm Robert Burns built, lived in a ...

he deleted "''virtue''" in the first stanza and substituted it with "''honor''" and wrote that: "''Lest my works should be thought below criticism; or meet with a Critic who, perhaps, will not look on them with so candid and favorable an eye; I am determined to criticise them myself.''"

First stanza

''The first distich* of the first stanza is quite too much in the flimsy strain of ordinary street ballads; and on the other hand, the second line ''is too much in the other extreme. The expression is a little awkward, and the sentiment too serious.''

Second stanza

Burns wrote that ''..I am well pleased with; and I think it conveys a fine idea of that amiable part of the sex --- the agreables; or what in our Scotch dialect we call a sweet sonsy lass''.

Third stanza

Burns wrote that it ''has a little of the flimsy turn in it; and the third line has rather too serious a cast''.

Fourth stanza

Burns wrote that this is ''a very indifferent one; the first line is, indeed all in the strain of the second stanza, but the rest is mostly an expletive''.

Fifth stanza

Burns wrote that ''The thoughts in the fifth stanza come finely up to my favourite idea of a sweet sonsy lass; the last line halts a little''.

Sixth stanza

Burns wrote that ''The same sentiments are kept up with equal spirit and tenderness''. '..but the second and fourth lines ending with short syllables hurt the whole''.

Seventh stanza

Burns wrote that it has ''several minute faults; but I remember I composed it in a wild enthusiasm of passion, and to this hour I never recollect it, but my heart melts, and my blood sallies at the rememberance''.· * A ''distich'' is a couplet, consisting originally of a

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...

and

pentameter Pentameter ( grc, πεντάμετρος, 'measuring five ( feet)') is a poetic meter. А poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have the length of five feet, where a 'foot' is a combination of a particul ...

line, containing a single idea, as exemplified in the Greek Anthology.

References

External links

Robert Burns O Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass (Davy Steele)Robert Burns: O Once I Loved A Bonie LassHandsome Nell by Robert Burns (Poetry)Researching the Life and Times of Robert Burns Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handsome Nell Poetry by Robert Burns Scots-language works Robert Burns History of East Ayrshire 18th-century Scottish women 1759 births 1820 deaths People from East Ayrshire