Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 293: Sonnet On Receiving A Favour

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About This Book

The collection assembles lyrical songs, narrative poems, satirical pieces, epistles, epitaphs, and fragments that shift between convivial drinking verses, tender laments, and comic storytelling. Many lyrics were shaped to traditional airs and preserve vernacular speech, while longer works portray rural labor, domestic scenes, and compassionate encounters with animals. Satire targets religious hypocrisy and social pretension, and several poems take a direct, personal tone of moral reflection or affectionate address. The selections alternate moods and forms, emphasizing melodic phrasing and a versatile technical range.

Sonnet On Receiving A Favour

10 Aug., 1979. Addressed to Robert Graham, Esq. of Fintry. I call no Goddess to inspire my strains, A fabled Muse may suit a bard that feigns: Friend of my life! my ardent spirit burns, And all the tribute of my heart returns, For boons accorded, goodness ever new, The gifts still dearer, as the giver you. Thou orb of day! thou other paler light! And all ye many sparkling stars of night! If aught that giver from my mind efface, If I that giver’s bounty e’er disgrace, Then roll to me along your wand’rig spheres, Only to number out a villain’s years! I lay my hand upon my swelling breast, And grateful would, but cannot speak the rest.