Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 315: Elegy On Willie Nicol’s Mare

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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.

Elegy On Willie Nicol’s Mare

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, As ever trod on airn; But now she’s floating down the Nith, And past the mouth o’ Cairn. Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, An’ rode thro’ thick and thin; But now she’s floating down the Nith, And wanting even the skin. Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, And ance she bore a priest; But now she’s floating down the Nith, For Solway fish a feast. Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, An’ the priest he rode her sair; And much oppress’d and bruis’d she was, As priest-rid cattle are,—&c. &c.