A Fragment [When First I Came to Stewart Kyle]

A Fragment [When First I Came to Stewart Kyle] - context Summary

Written in 1785

This short fragment, written in 1785, records a youthful episode of wandering and sudden attachment. The speaker describes arriving at Stewart Kyle and, despite previous casual relationships, being unexpectedly seized by love for a woman near Mauchlin town. The poem captures a momentary narrative of movement, attraction, and the loss of emotional steadiness common in Burns's early work. As a fragment, it preserves the immediacy of an encounter rather than a developed argument, and it reflects Burns's habit of drawing on local Scottish places and personal romantic experience.