To
a Mountain Daisy
by Robert
Burns
ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE
PLOUGH IN APRIL 1786
|
1 |
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.
|
2 |
Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet, |
The bonie lark, companion meet, |
Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet, |
Wi' spreckl'd breast! |
When upward-springing, blythe, to
greet |
The purpling east.
|
3 |
Cauld blew the bitter-biting
north |
Upon thy early, humble birth; |
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth |
Amid the storm, |
Scarse rear'd above the
parent-earth |
Thy tender form.
|
4 |
The flaunting flow'rs our gardens
yield, |
High shelt'ring woods and wa's
maun shield; |
But thou, beneath the random
bield |
O' clod or stane, |
Adorns the histie stibble-field, |
Unseen, alane.
|
5 |
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!
|
6 |
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.
|
7 |
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'¡
|
8 |
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'rys brink; |
Till, wrench'd of ev'ry stay but
Heav'n, |
He, ruin'd, sink!
|
9 |
Ev'n thou who mourn'st the
Daisy's fate, |
That fate is thine - no distant
date; |
Stern Ruin's plough-share drives
elate, |
Full on thy bloom, |
Till crush'd beneath the furrow's
weight |
Shall be thy doom! |
Robert Burns |
Classic Poems |
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[ A Red, Red Rose ] [ To a Mountain Daisy ] [ Address to a Haggis ] [ Address to Edinburgh ] [ Auld Lang Syne ] [ Is there for Honest Poverty ] [ Address to the Unco Guid ] [ The Cotter's Saturday Night ] [ To a Louse ] [ My Heart's in the Highlands ] [ Holy Willie's Prayer ] [ Tam O'Shanter ] [ To a Mouse ] |