Stanzas, on the same Occasion by Robert Burns
The speaker faces the prospect of leaving earthly life and questions whether mixed pleasures and hardships, fear of death’s dreary abode, or dread of judgment causes this reluctance. Guilt is revealed as the deepest terror, for the speaker trembles before an angry God and sin-avenging punishment. Though longing for forgiveness and promising obedience, the speaker doubts any renewed resolve: restored health might lead again to deserting virtue, following folly, exalting the brute, and returning to sins already mourned. The speaker therefore fears asking heavenly mercy while repeatedly acting against its plan. Addressing the great Governor of all below, the speaker asks for help to restrain furious passions. As divine power can still tempests and raging seas, it can confine the speaker’s impulses within their allowed course.
By Robert Burns · First published 1787 · Genre: Religious Poetry, Devotional Poetry, Confessional Poetry · 326 words
First lines
Why am I loth to leave this earthly scene? / Have I so found it full of pleasing charms? / Some drops of joy with draughts of ill between- / Some gleams of sunshine 'mid renewing storms, / Is it departing pangs my soul alarms? / Or death's unlovely, dreary, dark abode? / For guilt, for guilt, my terrors are in arms: / I tremble to approach an angry God, / And justly smart beneath His sin-avenging rod.
What this Textopian page supports
Stanzas, on the same Occasion is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1787 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: 1787 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Religious Poetry, Devotional Poetry, Confessional Poetry, Moral and Didactic Poetry, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 326 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Stanzas, on the same Occasion 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
Similar titles
- In Evil Long I Took Delight by John Newton
- To Those Who Know The Lord I Speak by John Newton
- A Point I Long To Know by John Newton
- Sin When Viewd By Scripture Light by John Newton
- Uncertain How The Way To Find by John Newton
- The First Saved by Thomas Gordon Hake
Genres
- Religious Poetry — The poem is a direct meditation on God, sin, divine judgment, forgiveness, mercy, and prayer for spiritual assistance.
- Devotional Poetry — Its speaker addresses God in earnest prayer, confessing moral failure and asking for divine power to restrain sinful passions.
- Confessional Poetry — The first-person speaker candidly admits guilt, recurrent temptation, fear of death, and inability to sustain virtue without grace.
- Moral and Didactic Poetry — The stanzas examine the consequences of vice, the weakness of human self-command, and the ethical need to resist destructive passions.
Tags
Christian devotional poetry · religious confession · repentance · sin and guilt · fear of divine judgment · death and mortality · afterlife anxiety · prayer for forgiveness · divine mercy · angry God · self-examination · moral weakness