Epistle from Esopus to Maria by Robert Burns
Writing from confinement, Esopus contrasts his former stage roles with the real punishments around him and recounts insults aimed at Maria's public conduct and verse. He denounces Lonsdale, asks Maria to share her troubles, and proposes that they join forces against her critics.
By Robert Burns · Genre: Epistle, Satirical Poetry · 979 words
First lines
From those drear solitudes and frowsy cells, / Where Infamy with sad Repentance dwells; / Where turnkeys make the jealous portal fast, / And deal from iron hands the spare repast; / Where truant 'prentices, yet young in sin, / Blush at the curious stranger peeping in; / Where strumpets, relics of the drunken roar, / Resolve to drink, nay, half, to whore, no more; / Where tiny thieves not destin'd yet to swing, / Beat hemp for others, riper for the string: / From these dire scenes my wretched lines I date, / To tell Maria her Esopus' fate.
Genres
- Epistle — Esopus addresses Maria in verse, reports his confinement, and asks her to send him her troubles.
- Satirical Poetry — Rhyming lines ridicule Maria's vanity and verse, attack Lonsdale's guilt, and undercut Esopus's boasting with his admission that his sentences defy deciphering.
Tags
imprisonment · actors · literary satire · vanity · critics · verse letters
What this Textopian page supports
Epistle from Esopus to Maria is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Epistle, Satirical Poetry
- Length: 979 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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