Address to the Toothache by Robert Burns
The speaker curses the toothache’s venomous sting, which shoots through his tortured gums and ear, tearing his nerves with relentless pain. Unlike fevers, chills, rheumatics, and colic, which may draw sympathy from neighbours, toothache mocks every groan and offers no relief. His suffering makes him drool, leap about wildly, overturn small stools, and endure the laughter of girls by the fire, whom he angrily wishes to punish. He declares toothache worse than every other human sorrow, including bad harvests, foolish bargains, deaths of worthy friends, knaves’ tricks, and fools’ troubles. Even among the dreadful plagues imagined in hell, Toothache would be the greatest. The speaker finally wishes a toothache lasting a “townmond” upon all enemies of Scotland’s welfare.
By Robert Burns · First published 1787 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Satirical Poetry, Comic Poetry · 356 words
First lines
My curse upon your venom'd stang, / That shoots my tortur'd gums alang, / An' thro' my lug gies mony a twang, / Wi' gnawing vengeance, / Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang, / Like racking engines!
When fevers burn, or argues freezes, / Rheumatics gnaw, or colics squeezes, / Our neibor's sympathy can ease us, / Wi' pitying moan; / But thee-thou hell o' a' diseases- / Aye mocks our groan.
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A short, intensely expressive poem that voices the speaker's immediate physical agony and emotional rage.
- Satirical Poetry — Burns uses exaggerated comparisons, grotesque imagery, and a mock-serious tone to ridicule the toothache as the supreme human affliction.
- Comic Poetry — The poem turns bodily suffering into dark comedy through energetic Scots diction, absurd hyperbole, and violent comic wishes.
- Mock-Heroic Poetry — It elevates an ordinary toothache into an epic-scale enemy, comparing its pain to hell, torture engines, and ranked plagues.
Tags
toothache · physical pain · illness · suffering · curse · comic complaint · satire · Scottish vernacular · Scotland · eighteenth-century poetry · lyric poem · apostrophe
What this Textopian page supports
Address to the Toothache is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1787 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: 1787 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Satirical Poetry, Comic Poetry, Mock-Heroic Poetry, Dramatic Monologue
- Length: 356 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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