To a Mountain Daisy by Robert Burns
The poem addresses a wee, modest crimson-tipped flow’r encountered as the speaker ploughs and laments that he must crush its slender stem in the stoure. Though the bitter-biting north blew upon its early birth, the flower cheerfully appeared amid the storm. Unlike flaunting garden flowers protected by woods and wa’s, it grows unseen and alone in the histie stibble field, sheltered only by a clod or stane. Clad in a scanty mantle, it raises its snawie bosom and unassuming head toward the sun until the share tears up its bed and lays it low. The speaker compares the daisy’s fate to that of an artless maid betrayed by love’s simplicity and guileless trust, a simple bard overwhelmed on life’s rough ocean, and suffering worth driven by pride or cunning to mis’ry’s brink. He finally recognizes the same fate in himself, imagining Stern Ruin’s plough-share crushing his own bloom beneath the furrow’s weight.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Nature Poetry · 504 words
First lines
On turning down with the Plough, in April, 1786.
Wee, modest crimson-tipped flow'r, / Thou's met me in an evil hour; / For I maun crush amang the stoure / Thy slender stem: / To spare thee now is past my pow'r, / Thou bonie gem.
Similar titles
- To A Mouse On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough by Robert Burns
- I Dreamd I Lay by Robert Burns
- Subliminal by Edwina Stanton Babcock
- One Night As I Did Wander by Robert Burns
- I Begli Occhi Ond I Fui Percosso In Guisa by Francesco Petrarca
- The Lass Of Cessnock Banks by Robert Burns
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A personal, musical meditation in verse, expressing the speaker's immediate emotional response to accidentally destroying a daisy.
- Pastoral Poetry — The poem is rooted in rural Scottish life, featuring a field, ploughing, a lark, weather, agricultural labor, and an ordinary wildflower.
- Nature Poetry — Its central subject is a daisy observed closely in its natural setting, with attention to its appearance, vulnerability, growth, and exposure to the seasons.
- Elegy — The speaker mourns the daisy after his plough destroys it, using its death as the basis for reflections on loss, suffering, and mortality.
Tags
Scottish poetry · Scots language · eighteenth-century poetry · pastoral elegy · lyric poetry · nature poetry · rural Scotland · spring · ploughing · daisy · flowers · agriculture
What this Textopian page supports
To a Mountain Daisy 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: Lyric Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Nature Poetry, Elegy, Reflective Poetry
- Length: 504 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for To a Mountain Daisy 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