---
title: "Had I a Cave"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1793"
tune: "Robin Adair"
location: "Dumfries"
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/had-i-a-cave/"
---

# Had I a Cave

## Song
Had I a cave on some wild distant shore,  
Where the winds howl to the wave’s dashing roar:  
There would I weep my woes,  
There seek my lost repose,  
Till grief my eyes should close,  
Ne’er to wake more!

Falsest of womankind, can’st thou declare  
All thy fond, plighted vows fleeting as air!  
To thy new lover hie,  
Laugh o’er thy perjury;  
Then in thy bosom try  
What peace is there!

---

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/had-i-a-cave/