---
title: "Extemporaneous Effusion"
subtitle: "On being appointed to an Excise division"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1789"
location: "Ellisland"
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/extemporaneous-effusion/"
---

# Extemporaneous Effusion

### On being appointed to an Excise division

## Poem
Searching auld wives’ barrels,  
Ochon the day!  
That clarty barm should stain my laurels:  
But—what’ll ye say?  
These movin’ things ca’d wives an’ weans,  
Wad move the very hearts o’ stanes!

---

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/extemporaneous-effusion/