Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 234. A Mother’s Lament for her Son’s Death |
| | | | | For the Death of Her Son. |
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| FATE gave the word, the arrow sped, | |
| And pierc’d my darling’s heart; | |
| And with him all the joys are fled | |
| Life can to me impart. | |
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| By cruel hands the sapling drops, | 5 |
| In dust dishonour’d laid; | |
| So fell the pride of all my hopes, | |
| My age’s future shade. | |
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| The mother-linnet in the brake | |
| Bewails her ravish’d young; | 10 |
| So I, for my lost darling’s sake, | |
| Lament the live-day long. | |
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| Death, oft I’ve feared thy fatal blow. | |
| Now, fond, I bare my breast; | |
| O, do thou kindly lay me low | 15 |
| With him I love, at rest! | |
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