Pegasus at Wanlockhead
written in 1789
Pegasus at Wanlockhead - context Summary
Written in 1789
Composed in 1789, Robert Burns s short piece playfully recasts classical figures in a local, comic scene. Apollo arrives with an exhausted Pegasus and seeks Vulcan to shoe the mythical steed. The poem shifts from mock-epic action to a direct appeal to "Vulcan's Sons of Wanlockhead," treating the blacksmiths (or metalworkers evoked by that name) as practical problem-solvers. Its tone is light and colloquial, mixing mythic names with everyday labor, and it ends with the speaker promising payment for the work in the master s stead.
Read Complete AnalysesWith Pegasus upon a day Apollo, weary flying, (Thro' frosty hills the journey lay) On foot the way was plying. Poor, slipshod, giddy Pegasus Was, but a sorry walker, To Vulcan then Apollo gaes, To get a frosty calker. Obliging Vulcan fell to wark, Threw by his coat and bonnet; And did Sol's business in a crack, Sol pay'd him with a sonnet. Ye Vulcan's Sons of Wanlockhead, Pity my sad disaster; My Pegasus is poorly shod, I'll pay you like my Master.
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