On a Scotch Bard, Gone to the West Indies
The speaker mourns a rhyme-composing companion who has departed over the sea, calling on drinkers, merry revellers, and thoughtless people alike to lament him. His absence will be felt in social gatherings, by bonie lasses, widows, and wives, because he was generous, lively, and unlikely to wrong anyone. The speaker blames Fortune for driving away a man who was quick-minded and spirited, rather than removing some useless, idle fool. Auld, cantie Kyle is urged to weep for him, since he had long been her Laureat. Misfortune had gathered against him, and a jilting woman broke his heart; unable to bear hardship and hunger while preserving his proud independence, he took a berth before the mast and went over the sea. Though he was not greatly given to wrongdoing, money never remained in his pockets because he spent it freely. His chief pride was the Muse. The speaker asks the Jamaica bodies to treat him kindly and give him comfortable shelter, promising that they will find him a pleasant, gleeful fellow. He bids farewell to his friend, condemns the ill-will of his native soil, wishes him prosperity, and vows to toast him even though he is far away.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Poetry, Elegy, Comic Poetry · 606 words
First lines
A' ye wha live by sowps o' drink, / A' ye wha live by crambo-clink, / A' ye wha live and never think, / Come, mourn wi' me! / Our billie 's gien us a' a jink, / An' owre the sea!
Lament him a' ye rantin core, / Wha dearly like a random splore; / Nae mair he'll join the merry roar; / In social key; / For now he's taen anither shore. / An' owre the sea!
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On a Scotch Bard, Gone to the West Indies is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1786 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1786 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Elegy, Comic Poetry, Satire, Scottish Vernacular Poetry
- Length: 606 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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Genres
- Poetry — The work is a verse lyric composed in rhyming stanzas, using Scots diction, regular refrain, and expressive poetic imagery.
- Elegy — It adopts the form of a mock lament for a departed friend and fellow poet, repeatedly mourning his removal 'owre the sea.'
- Comic Poetry — Despite its lamenting posture, the poem treats drink, romance, poverty, and departure with exuberant humor and playful exaggeration.
- Satire — Burns lightly satirizes social hardship, fickle fortune, local attitudes, and the conventions of solemn mourning through ironic praise and comic language.
Tags
Scots-language poetry · Scottish vernacular · farewell poem · mock elegy · friendship · poetic companionship · emigration · West Indies · Jamaica · sea voyage · sailor's life · social drinking