In Burns’s comic song, the speaker is a woman who got sweet-talked by a farmhand named Robin. She went to Dunse to weave a plaid and met him at his father’s gate, where he dared to flatter her even though she was the elder’s daughter—a girl of slightly higher standing. He promised her winter provisions, but all he actually owned were three goose feathers and a small knife.
The refrain makes the joke plain: “Robin reaped in harvest, I reaped with him. I didn’t have a sickle, yet I stuck by him.” She’s dryly admitting she brought nothing to the arrangement except blind loyalty, and she’s still beside him. The whole piece has a wry, self-mocking mood—a wife who knows she was duped by a charming no-account but can’t help laughing at the absurdity. It’s a playful, unsentimental portrait of a woman poking fun at both her husband’s empty promises and her own foolish heart.