I have offered to perform at a conference later this month, "And Never Know the Joy": Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry." (at the University of Leiden, Netherlands). Though my topic is not Burns, I have offered to sing two Burns songs at the banquet, and this is one of them...
so my question is: should I act as though there is bawdy, secret meaning to these words? Or no?
I see it as a sensual love song. I always assumed "dainty" referred to one of two things: his petite shape, i.e. small hands, etc. or the fact that he was gentle of manner and nicely groomed, what some these days might call slightly "effeminate" or somewhat feminine-looking...which some women find very attractive.
The version I will sing will be essentially the lyrics found in the Digitrad, with a few lines borrowed from the Warlock Knowe version...