---
title: "Kirk and State Excisemen"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1793"
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/kirk-and-state-excisemen/"
---

# Kirk and State Excisemen

## Poem
Ye men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering  
’Gainst poor Excisemen? Give the cause a hearing:  
What are your Landlord’s rent-rolls? Taxing ledgers!  
What Premiers? What ev’n Monarchs? Mighty Gaugers!  
Nay, what are Priests? (those seeming godly wise-men,)  
What are they, pray, but Spiritual Excisemen!

---

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/kirk-and-state-excisemen/