Impromptu Lines to Captain Riddell
The speaker returns a newspaper, saying he has read its News and Review with little cause either for admiration or blame. He finds its papers barren of memorable domestic or foreign events, lacking even sensational crimes worth mentioning. He dismisses the Reviewers as people qualified to judge building materials such as mortar and stone, but not to decide what is fitting or unfitting in a completed work. The Poet then says his own rough goose-quill cannot adequately express the goodness the addressed gentleman has shown him; if he possessed a pen like a beam of sunlight, he would make that generosity known to the whole world.
By Robert Burns · First published 1787 · Genre: Satirical Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Epistolary Poetry · 174 words
First lines
On Returning a Newspaper.
Your News and Review, sir. / I've read through and through, sir, / With little admiring or blaming; / The Papers are barren / Of home-news or foreign, / No murders or rapes worth the naming.
Our friends, the Reviewers, / Those chippers and hewers, / Are judges of mortar and stone, sir; / But of meet or unmeet, / In a fabric complete, / I'll boldly pronounce they are none, sir;
My goose-quill too rude is / To tell all your goodness / Bestow'd on your servant, the Poet; / Would to God I had one / Like a beam of the sun, / And then all the world, sir, should know it!
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Genres
- Satirical Poetry — The poem humorously mocks the newspaper's lack of sensational news and disparages reviewers as unqualified to judge a finished literary work.
- Occasional Poetry — It was written for a specific social circumstance: returning Captain Riddell's newspaper and acknowledging his kindness to Burns.
- Epistolary Poetry — The verse is directly addressed to 'sir' and functions as a poetic message or note to Captain Riddell.
- Complimentary Verse — Its closing stanza expresses gratitude for Captain Riddell's generosity toward the poet, though in deliberately modest language.
Tags
Scottish vernacular poetry · occasional verse · epistolary poem · satire · literary criticism · reviewers · newspapers · news · domestic affairs · foreign affairs · absence of sensation · mockery of critics
What this Textopian page supports
Impromptu Lines to Captain Riddell is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1787 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: 1787 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Satirical Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Epistolary Poetry, Complimentary Verse, Literary Satire
- Length: 174 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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