Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

304 . 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 adore

Are 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 State

Shall ne’er my mortal foes be;

But let me have bold Zimri’s fate,

Within the arms of Cozbi!