Fickle Fortune: a Fragment by Robert Burns
The speaker laments that fickle Fortune has promised well but treated him badly, depriving him of a mistress, friends, and wealth. Nevertheless, he trusts in the strength of his own heart. He resolves to act as prudently as he can, and if success remains unattainable, he will welcome misfortune and face it with an undaunted mind.
By Robert Burns · First published 1793 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Scottish Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 94 words
First lines
Though fickle Fortune has deceived me, / She pormis'd fair and perform'd but ill; / Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav'd me, / Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.
I'll act with prudence as far 's I'm able, / But if success I must never find, / Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome, / I'll meet thee with an undaunted mind.
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Fickle Fortune: a Fragment is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1793 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1793 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Scottish Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Stoic Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
- Length: 94 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
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- Work identity for Fickle Fortune: a Fragment by Robert Burns
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Similar titles
- The Failing Track by George Macdonald
- Fortitude by Gelett Burgess
- If by Rudyard Kipling
- Failure by Ruth Collie
- Ballade By The Fire by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Storm by Francis Neilson
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, first-person verse lyric expressing an individual speaker's emotional response to betrayal, loss, and adversity.
- Scottish Poetry — Written by Robert Burns and employing Scots-inflected diction and contractions, the poem belongs to the eighteenth-century Scottish poetic tradition.
- Philosophical Poetry — It reflects on Fortune, success, suffering, prudence, and the moral value of maintaining courage under adverse circumstances.
- Stoic Poetry — The speaker accepts that misfortune may be unavoidable and resolves to confront it with an 'undaunted mind,' expressing a distinctly stoic attitude.
Tags
Scottish poetry · eighteenth-century poetry · lyric poem · poetic fragment · misfortune · fickle Fortune · betrayal of promises · adversity · resilience · stoicism · undaunted spirit · self-reliance