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Songs and lyrics of Robert Burns

Chapter 28: THO’ CRUEL FATE
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About This Book

A collected selection of the poet's songs and shorter lyrics presents his explorations of love, nature, rural Scottish life, patriotism, and social observation, often rendered in Scots dialect and intended for musical performance. The volume groups brief pieces alongside several longer poems, supplies a glossary of dialect terms and an index of first lines, and includes illustrative plates. Many lyrics evoke landscapes, domestic scenes, and communal gatherings, balancing tenderness and satire while varying tone from celebratory to elegiac. The arrangement favors lyrical vitality rather than strict chronology, offering readers both popular airs and more extended narrative poems within a single accessible anthology.

THO’ CRUEL FATE

Tho’ cruel fate should bid us part,
Wide as the pole and line;
Her dear idea round my heart
Should tenderly entwine.
Tho’ mountains rise and deserts howl
And oceans roar between;
Yet, dearer than my deathless soul,
I still would love my Jean.