“The Star” has now become something of a standard part of the proceedings at ‘Let it Blaw.’ It wasn’t always that way, for although it was included as part of the harmony for countless years beforehand, the singing of the Star’ wasn’t mentioned in the Club records until 1986.
For all that it’s an ever present at ‘Let it Blaw’, and indeed many other events held in memory of the Bard, its probably the only thing you’ll hear that’s not the work of Burns. Written by James Thomson; music by James Booth, its a rousing song in memory of the great man. The words are printed hereafter.
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2022
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Ian Duncan, Jim Weatherston, Charlie Boyle & Robert Mackie
X
2024
There is a star whose beaming ray
Is shed on ev’ry clime.
It shines by night, it shines by day
And ne’er grows dim wi’ time.
It rose upon the banks of Ayr,
It shone on Doon’s clear stream –
A hundred years are gane and mair,
Yet brighter grows its beam.
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This world has mony turns
But brightly beams aboon them a’
The star o’ Robbie Burns.
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And wore the hodden grey,
Auld Scotland’s sweetest bard was bred
Aneath a roof o’strae.
To sweep the strings o’Scotia’s lyre,
It needs nae classic lore;
It’s mither wit an native fire
That warms the bosom’s core.
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On fame’s emblazon’d page enshrin’d
And many a costly wreath’s been twin’d
To grace his honest brow.
And Scotland’s heart expands wi’ joy
Whene’er the day returns
That gave the world its peasant boy
Immortal Robbie Burns.