Extempore

Extempore - context Summary

Choosing Not to Enlist

Written in 1782, this short, jaunty piece records a young speaker’s resigned decision to become a soldier. In plain Scots voice he balances pride in his stature and age with practical disappointment about lost money and prospects. The poem reflects Robert Burns’s real-life flirtation with military service—an option he contemplated but ultimately rejected—and treats enlistment as a pragmatic, somewhat comic response to economic misfortune rather than a heroic calling. Its conversational tone makes the choice feel both impulsive and inevitable.