Elegy on the Late Miss Burnet of Monboddo
written in 1791
Elegy on the Late Miss Burnet of Monboddo - context Summary
Composed for a Friend's Death
This poem is an elegy Robert Burns wrote in 1791 to mourn Miss Burnet of Monboddo. Addressing nature, society, and personal sorrow, Burns contrasts the deceased’s purity and excellence with worldly pride and empty praise, depicting her loss as a darkening of the world and a special wound to her grieving family. The poem presents conventional funeral themes—praise of the dead, consolation through nature, and reproach of shallow honors—while keeping the tone intimate and elegiac, intended to honor a woman known to the poet and to console those she left behind.
Read Complete AnalysesLife ne'er exulted in so rich a prize, As Burnet, lovely from her native skies; Nor envious death so triumph'd in a blow, As that which laid th' accomplish'd Burnet low. Thy form and mind, sweet maid, can I forget? In richest ore the brightest jewel set! In thee, high Heaven above was truest shown, As by His noblest work the Godhead best is known. In vain ye flaunt in summer's pride, ye groves; Thou crystal streamlet with thy flowery shore, Ye woodland choir that chaunt your idle loves, Ye cease to charm; Eliza is no more. Ye healthy wastes, immix'd with reedy fens; Ye mossy streams, with sedge and rushes stor'd: Ye rugged cliffs, o'erhanging dreary glens, To you I fly - ye with my soul accord. Princes, whose cumb'rous pride was all their worth, Shall venal lays their pompous exit hail, And thou, sweet Excellence! forsake our earth, And not a Muse with honest grief bewail? We saw thee shine in youth and beauty's pride, And Virtue's light, that beams beyond the spheres; But, like the sun eclips'd at morning tide, Thou left us darkling in a world of tears. The parent's heart that nestled fond in thee, That heart how sunk, a prey to grief and care; So deckt the woodbine sweet yon aged tree; So, rudely ravish'd, left it bleak and bare.
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