WIST Quotations

Burns, Robert -- “A Red Red Rose” (1796)

Dave — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:12:19 +0000

O, my Luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
“A Red Red Rose” (1796)

Burns derived the text from various folk songs.

Burns, Robert -- “Epitaph on My Own Friend and My Father’s Friend, William Muir in Tarbolton,” ll. 7-8 (1784-04), First Commonplace Book (1785).

Dave — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:18:29 +0000

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
“Epitaph on My Own Friend and My Father’s Friend, William Muir in Tarbolton,” ll. 7-8 (1784-04), First Commonplace Book (1785).
(Source)

A mock epitaph for William Muir (1745-1793), a miller in Tarbolton and good friend to Burns' family.

Burns, Robert -- “Man Was Made to Mourn” (1786)

Dave — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:12:07 +0000

Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
“Man Was Made to Mourn” (1786)
(Source)

Burns, Robert -- “To a Louse,” l.43-46 (1786)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion ….

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
“To a Louse,” l.43-46 (1786)

The poem is reprinted in various forms and anglicizations of Burns' Scottish, e.g.,

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:

Burns, Robert -- “Will Ye Go and Marry, Katie?” (1764)

Dave — Mon, 09 May 2022 18:48:50 +0000

Beauty’s of a fading nature,
Has a season and is gone!

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
“Will Ye Go and Marry, Katie?” (1764)
(Source)

Burns, Robert -- Letter to Dr. Moore (4 Jan 1789)

Dave — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:30:27 +0000

The worst of it is, by the time one has finished a piece, it has been so often viewed and reviewed before the mental eye, that one loses in a good measure the powers of critical discrimination. Here the best criterion I know is a friend –n ot only of abilities to judge, but with good-nature enough, like a prudent teacher with a young learner, to praise perhaps a little more than is exactly just, lest the thin-skinned animal fall into that most deplorable of all poetic diseases — heart-breaking despondency of himself.

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
Letter to Dr. Moore (4 Jan 1789)

Full letter