Scottish poet & lyricist (1759-1796)
Suspense is worse than disappointment.
ROBERT BURNS
letter to Thomas Sloan, 1 September 1791
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
ROBERT BURNS
To a Mouse
If there's another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.
ROBERT BURNS
Epitaph on William Muir
If naebody care for me,
I'll care for naebody.
ROBERT BURNS
I Hae a Wife o' my Ain
It's hardly in a body's pow'r,
To keep, at times, frae being sour.
ROBERT BURNS
Epistle to Davie
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human.
ROBERT BURNS
Address to the Unco Guid
The fear o' hell 's a hangman's whip
To haud the wretch in order;
But where ye feel your honour grip,
Let that aye be your border.
ROBERT BURNS
Epistle to a Young Friend
The voice of Nature loudly cries,
And many a message from the skies,
That something in us never dies.
ROBERT BURNS
New Year's Day
Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.
ROBERT BURNS
To a Mountain Daisy
Beauty's of a fading nature
Has a season and is gone!
ROBERT BURNS
Will Ye Go and Marry Katie?
Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a paradise,
If thou wert there, if thou wert there.
ROBERT BURNS
O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast
Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.
ROBERT BURNS
Epistle to a Young Friend
Misled by fancy's meteor ray,
By passion driven;
But yet the light that led astray
Was light from heaven.
ROBERT BURNS
The Vision
Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O:
Her prentice han' she tried on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.
ROBERT BURNS
Green Grow the Rashes, O
The golden Hours on angel wings
Flew o'er me and my Dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.
ROBERT BURNS
Highland Mary