---
title: "Clarinda, Mistress of My Soul"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1788"
location: "Mossgiel"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/clarinda-mistress-of-my-soul/"
---

# Clarinda, Mistress of My Soul

## Poem
Clarinda, mistres of my soul,  
The measur’d time is run!  
The wretch beneath the dreary pole  
So marks his latest sun.

To what dark cave of frozen night  
Shall poor Sylvander hie;  
Depriv’d of thee, his life and light,  
The sun of all his joy?

We part—but by these precious drops,  
That fill thy lovely eyes,  
No other light shall guide my steps,  
Till thy bright beams arise!

She, the fair sun of all her sex,  
Has blest my glorious day;  
And shall a glimmering planet fix  
My worship to its ray?

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/clarinda-mistress-of-my-soul/