Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auch
The ode denounces a miserly, inhuman widow who has amassed wealth through grasping and has shown neither pity nor charity. The speaker portrays her as aged, dishonoured, and cursed, with hands that took but never gave, guarding Mammon’s treasure while remaining unloved and unblessed. She is imagined not as entering eternal rest but as travelling unwillingly toward punishment, where she will join her former companion in a shared fiery fate. Her vast income and splendid funeral are exposed as powerless beyond this world, while a poor beggar who dies unknown in rags yet possesses a clear conscience is received into Heaven.
By Robert Burns · First published 1808 · Genre: Satirical elegy, Ode, Invective poetry · 352 words
First lines
Dweller in yon dungeon dark, / Hangman of creation! mark, / Who in widow-weeds appears, / Laden with unhonour'd years, / Noosing with care a bursting purse, / Baited with many a deadly curse?
Strophe
Similar titles
- The Treasure And The Two Men by Jean De La Fontaine
- Epitaph On Holy Willie by Robert Burns
- Epitaph On James Grieve Laird Of Boghead Tarbolton by Robert Burns
- Address To The Unco Guid Or The Rigidly Righteous by Robert Burns
- The Heifer The Goat And The Sheep In Company With The Lion by Jean De La Fontaine
- Epitaph For Gavin Hamilton Esq by Robert Burns
Genres
- Satirical elegy — The poem adopts the formal occasion of a memorial ode while savagely denying its subject conventional praise, portraying Mrs. Oswald as avaricious, cruel, and damned.
- Ode — It is explicitly titled an ode and uses elevated apostrophe, rhetorical questioning, and the classical structural divisions of strophe, antistrophe, and epode.
- Invective poetry — Its dominant method is direct denunciation: the speaker brands the deceased a 'Plunderer of Armies,' a miser, and a figure without pity or humanity.
- Moral satire — The work condemns greed, exploitation, and social heartlessness, contrasting wealth without conscience against the morally worthy poor.
Tags
Scottish poetry · eighteenth-century literature · ode · moral satire · invective · greed · avarice · wealth and corruption · lack of charity · inhumanity · widowhood · old age
What this Textopian page supports
Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1808 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: 1808 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Satirical elegy, Ode, Invective poetry, Moral satire, Social commentary
- Length: 352 words
- Structure: 1 section, 8 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive 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