It is unlikely that Burns originally wrote these couplets, instead they are more likely to have been traditional pieces which he collected. The buying of brooms was a common Scottish metaphor for ...
The alternate verses of this song continue the overt phallic symbolism of the previous version, but this time do so from the perspective of a man who still has the desire but not the ability to ...
"It would be of great service to us if you could buy two or three besoms made by these men," it said. "With or without a handle, 1/3d." Photographs and newspaper cuttings abounded, old men on ...