Castle Gordon
written in 1787
Castle Gordon - context Summary
Composed at Castle Gordon
Written in 1787 while Burns was a guest at Castle Gordon, this short lyric contrasts extravagant, distant images of wealth and tyranny with the modest, wholesome landscape surrounding the Scottish seat. The speaker rejects orientalist splendor and the violence associated with empire in favour of local streams, groves, and a contemplative mood. The poem celebrates simple, native nature as morally and emotionally preferable—a place for reflection, shelter, and authentic feeling—rooting personal contentment in the specific place of Castle Gordon.
Read Complete AnalysesStreams that glide in orient plains, Never bound by Winter's chains; Glowing here on golden sands, There immixed with foulest stains From Tyranny's empurpled hands: These, their richly gleaming waves, I leave to tyrants and their slaves; Give me the stream that sweetly laves The banks by Castle Gordon. Spicy forests, ever gay, Shading from the burning ray Hapless wretches sold to toil; Or the ruthless Native's way, Bent on slaughter, blood, and spoil: Woods that ever verdant wave, I leave the tyrant and the slave; Give me the groves that lofty brave The storms, by Castle Gordon. Wildly here without control, Nature reigns and rules the whole; In that sober, pensive mood, Dearest to the feeling soul, She plants the forest, pours the flood: Life's poor day I'll musing rave, And find at night a sheltering cave, Where waters flow and wild woods wave By bonie Castle Gordon.
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