Comin' Thro' the Rye

This is a variant of the tune to which "Auld Lang Syne" is usually sung—the melodic shape is almost identical, the difference lying in the tempo and rhythm.

G. W. Napier, in an 1876 Notes and Queries, wrote:[1] The original words of "Comin' thro' the rye" cannot be satisfactorily traced.

The version which is now to be found in the Works of Burns is the one given in Johnson's Museum, which passed through the hands of Burns; but the song itself, in some form or other, was known long before Burns.The protagonist, "Jenny", is not further identified, but there has been reference to a "Jenny from Dalry" and a longstanding legend in the Drakemyre suburb of the town of Dalry, North Ayrshire, holds that "comin thro' the rye" describes crossing a ford through the Rye Water at Drakemyre to the north of the town, downstream from Ryefield House and not far from the confluence of the Rye with the River Garnock.

It has a different chorus, referring to a phallic "staun o' staunin' graith" (roughly "an erection of astonishing size"), "kiss" is replaced by "fuck", and Jenny's "thing" in stanza four is identified as her "cunt".

Chorus: Ilka lassie has her laddie Nane, they say, hae I Yet a' the lads they smile at me When comin' thro' the rye.

He keeps picturing children playing in a field of rye near the edge of a cliff, and himself catching them when they start to fall off.