On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro'
Robert Burns’s poem playfully announces Captain Grose’s travels through Scotland as an antiquarian mission that will record whatever he finds. The speaker warns the “Land o’ Cakes” and its people to mend any holes in their coats, since Grose is among them taking notes and will print his observations. Grose is described as a short, stout man of bright genius, skilled with “cauk and keel,” and likely to be found investigating old owl-haunted buildings, ruined kirks, and other eerie places. The poem imagines ghosts, gipsies dealing in glamour, warlocks, and witches trembling before his power to uncover their secrets. Though said to have been bred a soldier who would sooner fall than flee, he has left his former military equipment for the “Antiquarian trade.” His collections are humorously exaggerated: they include rusty armour, old household utensils, a cinder from Eve’s first fire, Tubalcain’s fire-shool and fender, the distinguishing feature of Balaam’s ass, and the brass-shod broomstick of the witch of Endor. He can also confidently reconstruct Adam’s philibeg and identify the weapon that killed Abel as an ordinary folding knife or kail knife. The speaker presents Grose as especially merry in the company of a few good fellows and a supply of port. The poem ends by affectionately praising him as a “dainty chield” and threatening shame upon anyone who thinks ill of him.
By Robert Burns · First published 1791 · Genre: Satirical Poetry, Scottish Vernacular Poetry, Occasional Poetry · 609 words
First lines
Collecting The Antiquities Of That Kingdom
Hear, Land o' Cakes, and brither Scots, / Frae Maidenkirk to Johnie Groat's; - / If there's a hole in a' your coats, / I rede you tent it: / A chield's amang you takin notes, / And, faith, he'll prent it:
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Genres
- Satirical Poetry — The poem humorously exaggerates Captain Grose's antiquarian habits, mockingly presenting his collection as containing impossible relics from biblical and legendary history.
- Scottish Vernacular Poetry — Burns writes prominently in Scots dialect, addressing Scottish readers and evoking places, speech, customs, and cultural identity across Scotland.
- Occasional Poetry — The work was composed in response to Francis Grose's antiquarian travels and collecting project in Scotland, praising and teasing a specific contemporary figure.
- Comic Poetry — Its chief mode is playful comic description, using grotesque inventories, lively character portraiture, and convivial scenes involving drink and friendship.
Tags
Scottish vernacular poetry · eighteenth-century Scotland · antiquarianism · Captain Francis Grose · Scottish national identity · satirical portrait · comic tribute · travel through Scotland · collecting antiquities · historical artifacts · ruined churches · haunted buildings
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On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1791 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1791 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Satirical Poetry, Scottish Vernacular Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Comic Poetry, Character Sketch
- Length: 609 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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