A Winter Night

A Winter Night

Original Text
Robert Burns, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1797). B-10 0051 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
1When biting Boreas, fell and doure,
2Sharp shivers thro' the leafless bow'r;
3When Phœbus gies a short-liv'd glow'r,
4      Far south the lift,
5Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,
6      Or whirling drift:
7Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,
8Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,
9While burns, wi' snawy wreeths upchoked,
10      Wild-eddying swirl,
11Or thro' the mining outlet bocked,
12      Down headlong hurl.
13List'ning, the doors an' winnocks rattle,
14I thought me on the ourie cattle,
15Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
16      O' winter war,
17And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle,
18      Beneath a scar.
19Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!
20That, in the merry months o' spring,
21Delighted me to hear thee sing,
22      What comes o' thee?
23Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing
24      An' close thy e'e?
25Ev'n you on murd'ring errands toil'd,
26Lone from your savage homes exil'd,
27The blood-stain'd roost, and sheep-cote spoil'd
28      My heart forgets,
29While pityless the tempest wild
30      Sore on you beats.
...

Notes

1] fell and doure: cruel and hard or cutting. Back to Line
3] glow'r: stare. Back to Line
4] Far south in the sky. Back to Line
9] burns: brooks.
wreeths: drifts. Back to Line
11] mining: undermining.
bock'd: vomited. Back to Line
13] winnocks: windows. Back to Line
14] ourie: shivering. Back to Line
15] rattle: spurt. Back to Line
17] deep-lairing: sinking.
deep. sprattle: scramble. Back to Line
18] scaur: a cliff or bank. Back to Line
23] chittering: quivering. Back to Line
30] There follow in the original further verses in literary English of a moralizing, not descriptive, character. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1797
RPO poem Editors
G. G. Falle
RPO Edition
3RP 2.304.
Rhyme
aaabab