---
title: "On Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1793"
dateline: "4th November 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/on-mrs-riddells-birthday/"
---

# On Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday

## Poem
Old Winter, with his frosty beard,  
Thus once to Jove his prayer preferred:  
“What have I done of all the year,  
To bear this hated doom severe?

My cheerless suns no pleasure know;  
Night’s horrid car drags, dreary slow;  
My dismal months no joys are crowning,  
But spleeny English hanging, drowning.

“Now Jove, for once be mighty civil.  
To counterbalance all this evil;  
Give me, and I’ve no more to say,  
Give me Maria’s natal day!  
That brilliant gift shall so enrich me,  
Spring, Summer, Autumn, cannot match me.”  
“’Tis done!” says Jove; so ends my story,  
And Winter once rejoiced in glory.

---

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/on-mrs-riddells-birthday/