As a footnote to last week’s series of Burns poems, here are some memorable snippets from other poems by him.
from TO A LOUSE, ON SEEING ONE ON A LADY’S BONNET A CHURCH
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as other see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An’ foolish notion. . .
from A POET’S WELCOME TO HIS LOVE-BEGOTTEN DAUGHTER;
Thou’s welcome, Wean! Mischanter fa’ me,
If thoughts o’ thee, or yet thy Mamie,
Shall ever daunton me or awe me,
My bonie lady;
Or if I blush when thou shalt ca’ me
Tyta, or Daddie.
from MAN WAS MADE TO MOURN, A DIRGE
Many and sharp the num’rous Ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, Remorse, and Shame!
And Man, whose heav’n-erected face,
The smiles of love adorn,
Man’s inhumanity to Man
Makes countless thousands mourn!
from UP IN THE MORNING EARLY
Up in the morning’s no for me
Up in the morning early:
When a’ the hills are cov’r’d wi’ snaw,
I’m sure it is winter fairly.
from GREEN GROW THE RASHES. A FRAGMENT
Green grow the rashes, O;
Green grow, the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent amang the lassies, O.
~
There’s nought but care on ev’ry han’,
In ev’ry hour that passes, O:
What signifies the life o’ man,
An’ ’twere na for the lassies, O.
~
Auld Nature swears, the lovely Dears
Her noblest work she classes, O,
Her prentice han’ she try’d on man
An then she made the lasses, O.
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