Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie
Mailie, the author’s pet yowe, is grazing with her lambs when her cloot catches in her tether and she struggles into a ditch. Mortally injured, she lies groaning until Hughoc comes upon her. He stands aghast, unable to speak or help, and Mailie asks him to carry her dying words to her master. She begs her master never again to fasten sheep with cruel hemp or hair strings, but to let them roam freely on park or hill. She remembers him as a kind master and entrusts her helpless lambs to his care. He must protect them from dogs, tods, and butcher’s knives, feed them cow-milk until they can fend for themselves, and tend them with hay and corn. Mailie hopes her lambs will avoid the bad habits of restless animals that sneak through gaps to steal peas and kail. She wishes that they may live long enough to pass repeatedly through the shears, be fed by wives, and be mourned by bairns when they die. She particularly commends her toop-lamb, her son and heir, asking that he be raised carefully and taught some sense. She warns him to remain content among the yowes at home rather than behaving like reckless brutes. For her yowie, she prays protection from tether strings and from meeting a blasted moorland toop, urging her instead to keep company with respectable sheep. With her last breath, Mailie blesses both her children and asks them to remember their mother by being kind to one another. She again charges Hughoc to tell her master everything, ask him to burn the cursed tether, and accept her wool as payment for his trouble. Mailie then turns her head and closes her eyes among the dead.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Mock Elegy · 797 words
First lines
The Author's Only Pet Yowe.
An Unco Mournfu' Tale
Similar titles
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- The Voice Of Age by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- The Shepherds Dog by Charlotte Maria Tucker
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — The work tells a complete story in verse, following Mailie's accident, final speech, and death.
- Pastoral Poetry — Its rural setting, sheep, lambs, shepherding practices, fields, livestock, and farm life place it firmly in the pastoral tradition.
- Mock Elegy — Mailie's death is presented through the elevated conventions of a dying farewell and lament, while the subject is an ordinary sheep and the tone contains comic incongruity.
- Animal Fable — A speaking animal delivers moral advice about care, family, conduct, and survival, using animal life to reflect human values and behavior.
Tags
Scottish pastoral poetry · 18th-century Scotland · Scots dialect · dramatic monologue · animal narrator · dying sheep · rural farm life · shepherding · maternal love · dying mother's blessing · care for orphaned lambs · animal welfare
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Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1786 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1786 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Mock Elegy, Animal Fable, Comic Poetry
- Length: 797 words
- Structure: 1 section, 15 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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