Sketch for an Elegy
written in 1788
Sketch for an Elegy - meaning Summary
Sincere Mourning Over Pomp
This short elegy mourns a valued companion and traces how friends are silenced by sudden memory and grief. Burns sketches several mourners — witty, stoic, philosophical — each unable to contain tears, showing shared human vulnerability. The speaker rejects grand monuments and state pomp, preferring to linger at the simple turf of the deceased, praising him as an honest, worthy man. The poem emphasizes intimate communal mourning, sincerity over status, and the emotional force of remembrance that interrupts ordinary speech and composure.
Read Complete AnalysesCraigdarroch, fam'd for speaking art And every virtue of the heart, Stops short, nor can a word impart To end his sentence, When mem'ry strikes him like a dart With auld acquaintance. Black James - whase wit was never laith, But, like a sword had tint the sheath, Ay ready for the work o' death - He turns aside, And strains wi' suffocating breath His grief to hide. Even Philosophic Smellie tries To choak the stream that floods his eyes: So Moses wi' a hazel-rice Came o'er the stane; But, tho' it cost him speaking twice, It gush'd amain. Go to your marble graffs, ye great, In a' the tinkler-trash of state! But by thy honest turf I'll wait, Thou man of worth, And weep the ae best fallow's fate E'er lay in earth!
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