A Winter Night by Robert Burns
On a fierce winter night, the speaker hears the storm battering the world while Labour sleeps. Thinking of cattle, sheep, small birds, and even predatory creatures exposed to the cold, he feels pity for all living beings struggling beneath snow and wind. Under Phoebe’s midnight light, he hears a solemn voice condemn the greater cruelty that people inflict on one another: oppression, ambition, luxury, flattery, property, sexual betrayal, poverty, imprisonment, and the harsh punishment of those already ruined by misfortune. The voice urges the comfortable to remember the homeless, hungry, and confined, and calls relief of the afflicted a profound human blessing. Chanticleer’s crow announces morning, leaving the speaker convinced that a benevolent and kindly heart most resembles God.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Social Protest Poetry, Political Poetry · 1,045 words
First lines
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, / That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm! / How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, / Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you / From seasons such as these? -Shakespeare.
When biting Boreas, fell and dour, / Sharp shivers thro' the leafless bow'r; / When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r, / Far south the lift, / Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r, / Or whirling drift:
What this Textopian page supports
A Winter Night is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1786 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1786 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Social Protest Poetry, Political Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Nature Poetry
- Length: 1,045 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for A Winter Night by Robert Burns
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Similar titles
- Man Was Made To Mourn A Dirge by Robert Burns
- To A Mouse On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough by Robert Burns
- Epistle To Davie A Brother Poet by Robert Burns
- To A Mountain Daisy by Robert Burns
- One Night As I Did Wander by Robert Burns
- In The Character Of A Ruined Farmer by Robert Burns
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A reflective, first-person poem that combines vivid seasonal imagery with the speaker's emotional and moral response.
- Social Protest Poetry — The poem denounces oppression, poverty, class inequality, exploitative property relations, luxury, and the neglect of the dispossessed.
- Political Poetry — Its attack on 'Oppression,' 'Ambition,' legal severity, and social hierarchy gives the work a strong political and reformist dimension.
- Pastoral Poetry — Burns situates the poem in a rural winter landscape populated by labourers, cattle, sheep, birds, farms, and cottages.
Tags
Scottish poetry · Scots dialect · eighteenth-century literature · winter storm · rural Scotland · nighttime setting · nature and weather · snow and frost · animal suffering · compassion for animals · poverty · homelessness