No Churchman am I by Robert Burns
The speaker rejects the roles of churchman, statesman, soldier, and scheming businessman, declaring that his chief concern is a large bottle of drink. He neither envies the peer nor despises the peasant, valuing instead the company of good fellows and the bottle they share. As the squire rides by and the wealthy citizen carries his purse, the speaker looks to the Crown and finds relief in drink. After his wife dies, he seeks consolation at church but concludes, through old Solomon’s teaching, that a big-belly’d bottle cures every care. When a business venture appears ruined, a pursy landlord brings him a glorious bottle and ends his anxiety. He finally agrees with a learned maxim that life’s cares can be comforts, because the bottle makes even care feel heavenly.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Drinking Song, Lyric Poetry, Comic Poetry · 337 words
First lines
Tune-"Prepare, my dear Brethren, to the tavern let's fly."
No churchman am I for to rail and to write, / No statesman nor soldier to plot or to fight, / No sly man of business contriving a snare, / For a big-belly'd bottle's the whole of my care.
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Genres
- Drinking Song — The poem is structured as a tavern tune celebrating fellowship, drink, and the recurring consolation of a 'big-belly'd bottle.'
- Lyric Poetry — It is a short, musical first-person poem organized in regular stanzas and refrains, expressing the speaker's attitudes and pleasures.
- Comic Poetry — Its exaggerated devotion to the bottle, colloquial phrasing, and treatment of grief and financial ruin through drink create a deliberately humorous tone.
- Satirical Poetry — The speaker dismisses churchmen, statesmen, soldiers, businessmen, social rank, and conventional moral seriousness in favor of tavern sociability.
Tags
Scottish drinking song · tavern culture · conviviality · wine and bottles · alcohol as consolation · care and anxiety · comic escapism · anti-clerical satire · rejection of public ambition · church and religion · social equality · peer and peasant
What this Textopian page supports
No Churchman am I 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: Drinking Song, Lyric Poetry, Comic Poetry, Satirical Poetry, Tavern Poetry
- Length: 337 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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