John Anderson, My Jo

Summary

John Anderson, My Jo is a short song of two stanzas that Burns wrote for The Scots Musical Museum, published in 1790. An older song by this name existed and was coarse; Burns kept its tune and its opening phrase and wrote an entirely new, tender text in the voice of an old wife speaking to her old husband. Jo is Scots for sweetheart or dear. In the first stanza she remembers when they first became acquainted: his hair was black as the raven and his brow smooth. Now his brow is bald and his locks are white as snow, but she says, blessings on your frosty head, John Anderson, my dear. In the second stanza she looks at their whole married life as a climb up a hill together. They have had many a cheerful day with one another. Now they must totter down the other side, hand in hand, and sleep together at the foot. The song is a picture of faithful marriage in old age. It does not deny age or death: the hair has turned, the climb is over, and the foot of the hill is the grave. But it meets these facts with affection rather than fear, and it presents the end of life as something the couple will face together. The image of life as a hill climbed and then descended is ancient and simple, and Burns gives it the plain words of an ordinary Scottish woman. Students who know Burns only for his love songs to young women should notice that some of his finest lines praise love that has lasted a lifetime, and that the song shows his skill at redeeming a coarse old lyric into something tender and clean.

Top Lessons

• Faithful marriage

  The song praises love that has lasted through a whole life. The wife still blesses her husband when youth is gone.

• Facing death together

  The foot of the hill is the grave, yet the wife speaks calmly and affectionately.

• Redeeming a song

  Burns took a coarse old song and rewrote it as a tender one, keeping the tune.

Verified Quotes