How Cruel are the Parents by Robert Burns
The speaker condemns parents who value wealth above their daughter's happiness, leaving her to choose between her father's hatred and an unhappy marriage. Her plight is compared to a dove that, pursued by a hawk and despairing of escape, drops at a ruthless falconer's feet.
By Robert Burns · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Social Criticism · 148 words
First lines
Altered from an old English song. / Tune-"John Anderson, my jo."
How cruel are the parents / Who riches only prize, / And to the wealthy booby / Poor Woman sacrifice! / Meanwhile, the hapless Daughter / Has but a choice of strife; / To shun a tyrant Father's hate- / Become a wretched Wife.
The ravening hawk pursuing, / The trembling dove thus flies, / To shun impelling ruin, / Awhile her pinions tries; / Till, of escape despairing, / No shelter or retreat, / She trusts the ruthless Falconer, / And drops beneath his feet.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Two rhymed stanzas set to a named tune express indignation at parents who sacrifice a daughter's happiness for wealth.
- Social Criticism — The speaker attacks parents' preference for a wealthy fool and the coercion that leaves a daughter facing paternal hatred or marital misery.
Tags
forced marriage · parental tyranny · wealth · women's suffering
What this Textopian page supports
How Cruel are the Parents is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated Date unknown.
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: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Social Criticism
- Length: 148 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Good citation fit
- Work identity for How Cruel are the Parents by Robert Burns
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph