Elegy on the Year 1788 by Robert Burns
The speaker mourns the loss of Eighty-eight, insisting that while lords and kings may die without his sorrow, the wreck of a whole year is a grave loss. He recalls its troubling events: the Spanish empire has lost its head, his old toothless Bawtie has died, Pitt and Fox are in conflict, and Maggie’s two small cocks contend with different temperaments. Ministers are called to lament a year that gave them money and provisions. Bonie lasses are told to dry their eyes, for some lost in Eighty-eight what they can never give again. Even the cattle, sheep, and the earth seem mournful, while E'nburgh wells are grutten dry. The speaker then advises Eighty-nine, a beardless child occupying its Daddy’s chair, to act freely and carry out its Daddy’s plan at least as well as the honest old year did, and as much better as possible.
By Robert Burns · First published 1788 · Genre: Elegy, Satirical Poetry, Occasional Poetry · 454 words
First lines
For lords or kings I dinna mourn, / E'en let them die-for that they're born: / But oh! prodigious to reflec'! / A Towmont, sirs, is gane to wreck! / O Eighty-eight, in thy sma' space, / What dire events hae taken place! / Of what enjoyments thou hast reft us! / In what a pickle thou has left us!
The Spanish empire's tint a head, / And my auld teethless, Bawtie's dead: / The tulyie's teugh 'tween Pitt and Fox, / And 'tween our Maggie's twa wee cocks; / The tane is game, a bluidy devil, / But to the hen-birds unco civil; / The tither's something dour o' treadin, / But better stuff ne'er claw'd a middin.
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Elegy on the Year 1788 is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1788 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: 1788 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Elegy, Satirical Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Political Satire, Scottish Dialect Poetry
- Length: 454 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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Genres
- Elegy — The poem mourns the passing of the year 1788 in the conventional language of loss, lamentation, and tribute, treating the departed year as a deceased figure.
- Satirical Poetry — Burns uses comic exaggeration, irony, bawdy innuendo, and mock-solemn mourning to ridicule political conflict, clerical self-interest, and everyday concerns.
- Occasional Poetry — Written for New Year's Day 1789, the poem responds directly to the end of a specific calendar year and its recent political and local events.
- Political Satire — References to Pitt, Fox, the Spanish Empire, and the Regent place contemporary British and international politics within a sharply comic satirical frame.
Tags
Scottish poetry · Scots language · elegy · New Year poem · 1788 · 1789 · mourning for a departed year · personification of time · political satire · British politics · Pitt and Fox · Spanish Empire