Birthday Ode for 31st December, 1787
The ode mourns the birthday of Prince Charles Edward, portrayed as an illustrious exile wandering without a secure home, sustained only by passing charity and tormented by memories of former suffering. Though he should wear imperial purple, he possesses no place to rest his head, while those loyal to him remain far away and unable to share his grief. The speaker rejects Hope as a false flatterer and marks the birthday not with celebration but with sorrowful proof of loyalty. Accepting Heaven’s mysterious rule, the loyal mourners can do no more than submit and adore. The poem then invokes honored dead who died for their King, Country, and laws, including Dundee, who led Victory and died as a martyr, and Balmerino, whose fiery spirit merits the highest heroic praise. Their deaths are declared not to be forgotten or unavenged. Their blood will call upon an unsparing Power until vengeance gathers like a descending snowy ruin that crushes a cottage below. Vengeance is imagined as a violent force that will overthrow Brunswick’s usurping pride and repay the wrongs suffered by Stewart and the fallen loyalists many times over. Perdition is summoned to unleash the hounds of hell against the usurping crew, described as agents of faction, a national curse, apostates to God, and rebels against their King. The vision culminates in Brunswick as exhausted prey, pursued by ever-worsening terror and destruction.
By Robert Burns · First published 1787 · Genre: Political Poetry, Jacobin and Jacobite Literature, Ode · 637 words
First lines
The last birthday of Prince Charles Edward.
Afar the illustrious Exile roams, / Whom kingdoms on this day should hail; / An inmate in the casual shed, / On transient pity's bounty fed, / Haunted by busy memory's bitter tale! / Beasts of the forest have their savage homes, / But He, who should imperial purple wear, / Owns not the lap of earth where rests his royal head! / His wretched refuge, dark despair, / While ravening wrongs and woes pursue, / And distant far the faithful few / Who would his sorrows share.
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Genres
- Political Poetry — The poem is explicitly partisan Jacobite verse, condemning the Hanoverian Brunswick regime, affirming Stuart legitimacy, and demanding retribution against political usurpers.
- Jacobin and Jacobite Literature — It mourns the exile of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, honors Jacobite martyrs such as Dundee and Balmerino, and expresses loyalty to the Stuart cause.
- Ode — Its elevated address, ceremonial occasion, passionate rhetoric, invocations, and grand public subject identify it as an ode.
- Occasional Poetry — The work was composed for a specific commemorative date: the birthday of Prince Charles Edward on 31 December 1787.
Tags
Jacobitism · Prince Charles Edward Stuart · Scottish political poetry · eighteenth-century Scotland · royal exile · Stuart restoration · anti-Hanoverian sentiment · Brunswick usurpation · loyalism · monarchy · political grievance · national identity
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Birthday Ode for 31st December, 1787 is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1787 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1787 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Political Poetry, Jacobin and Jacobite Literature, Ode, Occasional Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
- Length: 637 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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