Ae Fond Kiss (song)

After the publication of his collected poems, the Kilmarnock volume, Burns regularly travelled and stayed at Edinburgh.

While there he established a platonic relationship with Mrs Agnes Maclehose and they began a regular correspondence using the pseudonyms "Clarinda" and "Sylvander".

Burns wrote "Ae fond kiss" after their final meeting and sent it to Maclehose on 27 December 1791 before she departed Edinburgh for Jamaica to be with her estranged husband.

[1][2] The letter[2] is held by National Library of Scotland as part of the Watson Autograph collection of manuscripts.

(The melody playable on the link here is not "Rory Dall's Port", but perhaps is now more associated with the words than the original.)