Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots, on the Approach
The speaker contrasts the joy and beauty of spring with her own suffering in imprisonment. Nature renews itself in green trees, daisies, bright streams, birdsong, and blossoming flowers, while free creatures and even the poorest people in Scotland can enjoy the countryside. Yet she, though Queen of Scotland and once Queen of bonie France, is confined in foreign bands and burdened by unending care. She condemns a false woman whom she calls both sister and foe, accusing her of lacking womanly pity and foretelling vengeance against her. Turning to her son, she prays that kinder stars will guide him, that his reign will possess pleasures denied to her, and that God will protect him from her enemies or soften their hearts. She asks him to remember her friends. Finally, exhausted by grief, she wishes that summer and autumn may no longer return for her. She longs instead for death, imagining winter raging around her grave while the flowers of a later spring bloom peacefully above it.
By Robert Burns · First published 1791 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Monologue, Historical Poetry · 542 words
First lines
Now Nature hangs her mantle green / On every blooming tree, / And spreads her sheets o' daisies white / Out o'er the grassy lea; / Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams, / And glads the azure skies; / But nought can glad the weary wight / That fast in durance lies.
Now laverocks wake the merry morn / Aloft on dewy wing; / The merle, in his noontide bow'r, / Makes woodland echoes ring; / The mavis wild wi' mony a note, / Sings drowsy day to rest: / In love and freedom they rejoice, / Wi' care nor thrall opprest.
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a first-person, songlike poetic monologue centered on intense personal feeling, using regular stanzas, rhyme, and evocative natural imagery.
- Dramatic Monologue — Burns gives a sustained imagined voice to the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, allowing her grief, anger, maternal concern, and longing for death to define the poem.
- Historical Poetry — The poem draws on the historical figure of Mary, Queen of Scots, her political captivity, her conflict with Elizabeth I, and anxiety for her son, James.
- Tragedy — Its central situation is one of irreversible suffering: a deposed queen is imprisoned, betrayed, separated from her child, and anticipates death.
Tags
Scottish poetry · historical lyric · Mary Queen of Scots · royal imprisonment · captivity · exile in England · spring · nature and renewal · contrast between freedom and confinement · grief and despair · queenship · Scotland
What this Textopian page supports
Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots, on the Approach of Spring is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1791 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: 1791 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Monologue, Historical Poetry, Tragedy, Lament
- Length: 542 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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