Poem On Life, Addressed To Colonel De Peyster. Dumfries, 1796. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABAC DDEFEG HHHAHA IJKHKH HHHEHE LLMHLH NNNANA AAAOAO| My honoured colonel deep I feel | A |
| Your interest in the Poet's weal | A |
| Ah now sma' heart hae I to speel | A |
| The steep Parnassus | B |
| Surrounded thus by bolus pill | A |
| And potion glasses | C |
| - | |
| O what a canty warld were it | D |
| Would pain and care and sickness spare it | D |
| And fortune favour worth and merit | E |
| As they deserve | F |
| And aye a rowth roast beef and claret | E |
| Syne wha wad starve | G |
| - | |
| Dame Life tho' fiction out may trick her | H |
| And in paste gems and frippery deck her | H |
| Oh flickering feeble and unsicker | H |
| I've found her still | A |
| Ay wavering like the willow wicker | H |
| 'Tween good and ill | A |
| - | |
| Then that curst carmagnole auld Satan | I |
| Watches like baudrons by a rattan | J |
| Our sinfu' saul to get a claut on | K |
| Wi' felon ire | H |
| Syne whip his tail ye'll ne'er cast saut on | K |
| He's aff like fire | H |
| - | |
| Ah Nick ah Nick it is na fair | H |
| First shewing us the tempting ware | H |
| Bright wines and bonnie lasses rare | H |
| To put us daft | E |
| Syne weave unseen thy spider snare | H |
| O' hell's damn'd waft | E |
| - | |
| Poor man the flie aft bizzes bye | L |
| And aft as chance he comes thee nigh | L |
| Thy auld danm'd elbow yeuks wi' joy | M |
| And hellish pleasure | H |
| Already in thy fancy's eye | L |
| Thy sicker treasure | H |
| - | |
| Soon heels o'er gowdie in he gangs | N |
| And like a sheep head on a tangs | N |
| Thy girning laugh enjoys his pangs | N |
| And murd'ring wrestle | A |
| As dangling in the wind he hangs | N |
| A gibbet's tassel | A |
| - | |
| But lest you think I am uncivil | A |
| To plague you with this draunting drivel | A |
| Abjuring a' intentions evil | A |
| I quat my pen | O |
| The Lord preserve us frae the devil | A |
| Amen amen | O |
Robert Burns
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