Kilo Lingo

English song

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

Lyrics

Verse 1

Bonnie ,

Bonnie ,

Bonnie ,

Bonnie .

Chorus

, ,

Bonnie , ,

, ,

Bonnie .

New words in this song

Comprehension drill

4 questions on what you just read. Get one wrong and the story will show you where it says otherwise.

Traditional Scottish song, by one theory about Bonnie Prince Charlie; already requested in sheet-music shops through the 1870s before Charles E. Pratt (d. 1888) formalised it in an 1881 print under two pseudonyms. Words and melody both long public domain. Source text. Translation ours.

Somebody's Bonnie is on the wrong side of the sea, and the whole song is the ache of it. Bonnie is a Scots word meaning beautiful, or the beautiful one - so "my Bonnie" is simply "my darling". One old theory says the original Bonnie was Bonnie Prince Charlie, exiled over the water after 1746, and the song a coded Jacobite lament; by the time an American publisher printed it in 1881 it belonged to everyone with someone far away.

The structure is a beginner's gift: , - the same clause twice with one word swapped, then the chorus hammering the phrasal verb that matters: . Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my Bonnie to me. You could not design a cleaner drill for it.

The middle verse slips in last night as I lay on my pillow... I dreamed - the past simple telling a small sad story in two lines. Notice English says last night, never "yesterday night"; the song will remember that for you.