Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr
The speaker wanders alone along the banks of Ayr as a violent storm gathers, seeing the hunter withdraw and scattered birds find safety while he remains burdened by care. Autumn’s ripening corn is damaged by early winter, and the threatening sky makes him think of the dangerous sea voyage ahead, far from Ayr. Yet he fears neither waves, deadly shores, nor death itself as much as the pain of severing the ties that bind him to his homeland. He bids farewell to Coila’s hills, dales, moors, and valleys, to places haunted by unhappy love, and to both friends and foes, offering peace to one and love to the other as he weeps for the bonie banks of Ayr.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Farewell Poem, Scottish Poetry · 388 words
First lines
Tune-"Roslin Castle."
"I composed this song as I conveyed my chest so far on my road to Greenock, where I was to embark in a few days for Jamaica. I meant it as my farewell dirge to my native land. "-R. B.
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a highly personal, musical poem expressing the speaker's immediate emotions through compressed stanzas, regular rhyme, and song-like phrasing.
- Farewell Poem — Its central purpose is a formal leave-taking from Ayr, its landscape, and the speaker's friends, foes, memories, and homeland before departure.
- Scottish Poetry — Burns situates the poem in the Ayrshire landscape and employs Scots-inflected diction such as 'bonie,' 'gath'ring,' and 'scatt'red,' grounding it in Scottish literary tradition.
- Romantic Poetry — The poem links intense private feeling with wild weather, seasonal change, solitude, memory, and emotionally charged natural scenery, anticipating major Romantic concerns.
Tags
Scottish poetry · Scots language · lyric poem · farewell song · exile · emigration · departure from homeland · Ayrshire · banks of the River Ayr · Scotland · eighteenth century · Jamaica voyage
What this Textopian page supports
Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1786 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: 1786 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Farewell Poem, Scottish Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Nature Poetry
- Length: 388 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr by Robert Burns
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