To a Mountain Daisy
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. Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet, The bonie lark, companion meet, Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet Wi' spreck'd breast, When upward-springing, blythe, to greet The purpling east. Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Upon thy early, humble birth; Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth Amid the storm, Scarce rear'd above the parent-earth Thy tender form. The flaunting flowers our gardens yield High shelt'ring woods an' wa's maun shield: But thou, beneath the random bield O' clod or stane, Adorns the histie stibble-field Unseen, alane. There, in thy scanty mantle clad, Thy snawie-bosom sun-ward spread, Thou lifts thy unassuming head In humble guise; But now the share uptears thy bed, And low thou lies! Such is the fate of artless maid, Sweet flow'ret of the rural shade! By love's simplicity betray'd And guileless trust; Till she, like thee, all soil'd, is laid Low i' the dust. Such is the fate of simple bard, On life's rough ocean luckless starr'd! Unskilful he to note the card Of prudent lore, Till billows rage and gales blow hard, And whelm him o'er! Such fate to suffering Worth is giv'n, Who long with wants and woes has striv'n, By human pride or cunning driv'n To mis'ry's brink; Till, wrench'd of ev'ry stay but Heav'n, He ruin'd sink! Ev'n thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate, That fate is thine—no distant date; Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate, Full on thy bloom, Till crush'd beneath the furrow's weight Shall be thy doom. |
Robert Burns is one of the most celebrated Scottish writers. His poems were often written for children as scout songs. "To a Mountain Daisy" depicts the speaker encountering a crushed daisy and his regret that he cannot save it. Later, he compares the beautiful, melancholy fate of the daisy to the fate of a woman, saying that the betrayal of the daisy's environment is akin to the betrayal of "love's simplicity". In the seventh stanza, he again compares the daisy to a human, this time a bard, and compares life's capacity to overwhelm to a rough ocean and raging wind. This initially simple elegy for the death of a flower evolves into a melancholy protest of the trials of life.
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To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church
Ha! whare ye gaun, ye crowlan ferlie! Your impudence protects you sairly: I canna say but ye strunt rarely, Owre gawze and lace; Tho’ faith, I fear ye dine but sparely, On sic a place. Ye ugly, creepan, blastet wonner, Detested, shunn’d, by saunt an’ sinner, How daur ye set your fit upon her, Sae fine a Lady! Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner, On some poor body. Swith, in some beggar’s haffet squattle; There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle, Wi’ ither kindred, jumping cattle, In shoals and nations; Whare horn nor bane ne’er daur unsettle, Your thick plantations. Now haud you there, ye’re out o’ sight, Below the fatt’rels, snug and tight, Na faith ye yet! ye’ll no be right, Till ye’ve got on it, The vera topmost, towrin height O’ Miss’s bonnet. My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out, As plump an’ gray as onie grozet: O for some rank, mercurial rozet, Or fell, red smeddum, I’d gie you sic a hearty dose o’t, Wad dress your droddum! I wad na been surpriz’d to spy You on an auld wife’s flainen toy; Or aiblins some bit duddie boy, On ’s wylecoat; But Miss’s fine Lunardi, fye! How daur ye do ’t? O Jenny dinna toss your head, An’ set your beauties a’ abread! Ye little ken what cursed speed The blastie’s makin! Thae winks and finger-ends, I dread, Are notice takin! O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us An’ foolish notion: What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us, And ev’n Devotion! |
Click here for a link to the poem with translations for some of the words Burns uses in his poem.
This poem, like the one above and many others, addresses an object, which is a literary technique known as apostrophe. Burns was well known for his unique way of composing a poem around a mundane, normally unnoticed subject, such as a louse, a flower, or a mouse. In this case, the speaker addresses a louse and realises how the ability to see ourselves through other people's eyes could help us to be aware of our own pride and help us to be better people. |