A Portrait of Robert Burns Robert Burns

1787 · Poem

Inscription for the Headstone of Fergusson the Poet

Epigraph

No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,No storied urn nor animated bust;This simple stone directs pale Scotia’s way,To pour her sorrows o’er the Poet’s dust. — Additional Stanzas
She mourns, sweet tuneful youth, thy hapless fate;Tho’ all the powers of song thy fancy fired,Yet Luxury and Wealth lay by in state,And, thankless, starv’d what they so much admired.
This tribute, with a tear, now givesA brother Bard—he can no more bestow:But dear to fame thy Song immortal lives,A nobler monument than Art can shew.
Inscribed Under Fergusson’s Portrait
Curse on ungrateful man, that can be pleased,And yet can starve the author of the pleasure.O thou, my elder brother in misfortune,By far my elder brother in the Muses,With tears I pity thy unhappy fate!Why is the Bard unpitied by the world,Yet has so keen a relish of its pleasures?

Footnotes

  1. 1. The stone was erected at Burns’ expenses in February—March, 1789.
Year
1787
Form
Poem
Location
Edinburgh
Source
Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns