A Portrait of Robert Burns Robert Burns

1796 · Poem

Complimentary Versicles to Jessie Lewars

The Toast


Epigraph

Fill me with the rosy wine,Call a toast, a toast divine:Giveth me Poet’s darling flame,Lovely Jessie be her name;Then thou mayest freely boast,Thou hast given a peerless toast. — The Menagerie
Talk not to me of savages,From Afric’s burning sun;No savage e’er could rend my heart,As Jessie, thou hast done:But Jessie’s lovely hand in mine,A mutual faith to plight,Not even to view the heavenly choir,Would be so blest a sight.8
Jessie’s illness9
Say, sages, what’s the charm on earthCan turn Death’s dart aside!It is not purity and worth,Else Jessie had not died.13
On Her Recovery14
But rarely seen since Nature’s birth,The natives of the sky;Yet still one seraph’s left on earth,For Jessie did not die.18
Year
1796
Form
Poem
Location
Dumfries
Source
Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns