Comin' Thro' the Rye

File:Comin' thro' the Rye. Robert Burns. 1920.jpg

File:Rye Water Ford, Dalry.JPG, Dalry]]

G. W. Napier, in an 1876 Notes and Queries, wrote:{{cite journal |last=Napier|first=G. W. |journal=Notes and Queries |date=19 February 1876 |issue=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PEwAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA151 |title=Notes and Queries}}

{{quote|text=The original words of "Comin' thro' the rye" cannot be satisfactorily traced. There are many different versions of the song. 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.{{cite book |author=John Cairney |title=The Luath Burns Companion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDl8PS0QH1IC&pg=PA267 |date=1 January 2011 |publisher=Luath Press Ltd. |isbn=978-1-906817-85-5 |page=267}}{{cite web |url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/STARN/crit/burns.htm |title=Burns and the Folksinger |author= Sheila Douglas |date= January 1996 |work= Burns Conference, Strathclyde University |publisher=STELLA |access-date=2014-10-28}} When this story appeared in the Glasgow Herald in 1867, it was soon disputed with the assertion that everyone understood the rye to be a field of rye, wet with dew, which also fits better with other stanzas that substitute "wheat" and "grain" for "rye".{{cite book |author=Robert Burns |title=The complete poetical works of Robert Burns, arranged in the order of their earliest publication: (With New Annotations, Biographical Notices &c., by Scott Douglas) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXRMAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA11 |year=1871 |publisher=James M'Kie |page=11}} An alternative suggestion is that "the rye" was a long narrow cobblestone-paved lane, prone to puddles of water.

While the original poem is already full of sexual imagery, an alternative version makes this more explicit. 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".{{cite book |last=Damrosch |first=David |title=What is world literature? |year=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yY-17mtp9R8C&pg=PA123 |page=123 |isbn=0691049866 }}{{cite web |title=Comin' thro' the rye [alternate version] |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/robertburns/works/comin_thro_the_rye_alternate_version/ |publisher=BBC |access-date=30 November 2011}}{{cite book |last=Burns |first=Roberts |title=The Merry Muses of Caledonia |year=1911 |url=https://archive.org/stream/merrymusesofcale00burnrich#page/60/mode/2up |page=61}}

{{Listen|filename=Comin' Through the Rye.ogg|title=Comin' Thro' the Rye|description=Tune for Comin' Thro' the Rye}}

{{quote|

O, Jenny's a' weet,{{ref label|A|A|A}} poor body,

Jenny's seldom dry:

She draigl't{{ref label|B|B|B}} a' her petticoatie,

Comin thro' the rye!

Chorus:

Comin thro' the rye, poor body,

Comin thro' the rye,

She draigl't a' her petticoatie,

Comin thro' the rye!

Gin{{ref label|C|C|C}} a body meet a body

Comin thro' the rye,

Gin a body kiss a body,

Need a body cry?{{ref label|D|D|D}}

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body

Comin thro' the glen

Gin a body kiss a body,

Need the warl'{{ref label|E|E|E}} ken?{{ref label|F|F|F}}

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body

Comin thro' the grain;

Gin a body kiss a body,

The thing's a body's ain.{{ref label|G|G|G}}

(chorus)

}}

• {{note label|A|A|A}}weet – wet
• {{note label|B|B|B}}draigl't – draggled
• {{note label|C|C|C}}gin – given, in the sense of "if"
• {{note label|D|D|D}}cry – call out [for help]
• {{note label|E|E|E}}warl – world
• {{note label|F|F|F}}ken – know
• {{note label|G|G|G}}ain – own

Even the "cleaner" version of the Burns lyrics is quite bawdy, and it is this one, or an "Anglicised" version of it, that is most commonly "covered".

{{quote|

Gin a body meet a body

Comin' thro' the rye

Gin a body kiss a body

Need a body cry?

Chorus:

Ilka lassie has her laddie

Nane, they say, hae I

Yet a' the lads they smile at me

When comin' thro' the rye.

Gin a body meet a body

Comin' frae the town

Gin a body kiss a body

Need a body frown?

(Chorus)

Gin a body meet a body,

Comin' frae the well,

Gin a body kiss a body,

Need a body tell?

(Chorus)

'Mang the train there is a swain

I dearly lo'e myself

But what his name or whaur his hame

I dinna care to tell

(Chorus)

}}

The title of the novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger comes from the poem's name. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, misremembers the line of the poem as, "if a body catch a body," rather than, "if a body meet a body." 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.{{cite journal |last=Chen |first=Lingdi |title=An Analysis of the Adolescent Problems in The Catcher in the Rye |journal=Asian Social Science |date=May 2009 |volume=5 |issue=5 |url=http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/view/1735/1621 |access-date=2 November 2011 |page=144 |doi=10.5539/ass.v5n5p143 |doi-access=free}}

• The song was covered by many opera singers in the early years of recording, during the first two decades of the 20th century including Nellie Melba, Geraldine Farrar and Marcella Sembrich.{{Cite web|url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/200012665/C-12474-Comin_thro_the_rye|title=Victor matrix C-12474. Comin' thro' the rye / Marcella Sembrich - Discography of American Historical Recordings|website=Adp.library.ucsb.edu|access-date=19 October 2021}}
• The song is sung by Ava Gardner in the 1953 John Ford film Mogambo.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9muc06G4pA|title=Mogambo-- comin thro the rye.|access-date=19 October 2021|via=YouTube}}
• Jo Stafford covered the song on her album Songs of Scotland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/songs-of-scotland-mw0000261911|title=Songs of Scotland - Jo Stafford | Songs, Reviews, Credits |publisher=AllMusic|access-date=19 October 2021}}
• John C. Reilly sang the song on a special whiskey-themed episode of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour in 2020.{{Cite news|url=https://www.themetimeradio.com/episode-102-whiskey/|title=Episode 102: Whiskey|newspaper=Theme Time Radio Hour Archive|access-date=19 October 2021}}

• "Korobeiniki", a Russian folk song that uses a similar bawdy allusion to rye.

{{Reflist}}

• Digitised copy of [http://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/pageturner.cfm?id=87803006 Comin' thro' the rye] in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum {{nowrap|pp. 430–431}}, "Written for this Work by Robert Burns", printed between 1787 and 1803. Published online by National Library of Scotland. JPEG, PDF, XML versions.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110726164100/http://faujsa.fau.edu/jsa/music_album.php?jsa_num=100781&queryWhere=jsa_num&queryValue=100781&select=gluck_alma&return=artist_album Public domain recording] (1914) by Alma Gluck

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Category:Poetry by Robert Burns

Category:1782 poems

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Category:Scottish folk songs

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