A Portrait of Robert Burns Robert Burns

1790 · Song

I Murder Hate


I murder hate by flood or field,Tho’ glory’s name may screen us;In wars at home I’ll spend my blood—Life-giving wars of Venus.The deities that I adoreAre social Peace and Plenty;I’m better pleas’d to make one more,Than be the death of twenty.
I would not die like Socrates,For all the fuss of Plato;Nor would I with Leonidas,Nor yet would I with Cato:The zealots of the Church and StateShall ne’er my mortal foes be;But let me have bold Zimri’s fate,Within the arms of Cozbi!
Year
1790
Form
Song
Location
Ellisland
Source
Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns