Poem by Robert Burns

* * *

‘I BURN, I burn, as when thro’ ripen’d corn
By driving winds the crackling flames are borne.’
Now raving-wild, I curse that fatal night;
Now bless the hour which charm’d my guilty sight.
In vain the laws their feeble force oppose:
Chain’d at his feet they groan, Love’s vanquish’d foes;
In vain religion meets my sinking eye;
I dare not combat-but I turn and fly;
Conscience in vain upbraids th’ unhallow’d fire;
Love grasps his scorpions-stifled they expire!
Reason drops headlong from his sacred throne,
Your dear idea reigns and reigns alone:
Each thought intoxicated homage yields,
And riots wanton in forbidden fields!

  By all on high adoring mortals know!
By all the conscious villain fears below!
By your dear self!-the last great oath I swear;
Nor life nor soul were ever half so dear!

1. I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen
2. Blythe Was She
3. Farewell to Ballochmyle
4. Stay My Charmer
5. Farewell, Thou Stream

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