To Miss Logan, with Beattie's Poems, for a New-Y
The speaker marks the return of the new year and observes that Miss Logan, though still young, has moved another year nearer to Heaven. Unable to offer costly gifts from “Indian coasts,” he sends Beattie’s tale of Edwin instead, valuing it above such riches. He acknowledges the common charge that men are deceitful and unfaithful in love, but wishes that every lover Miss Logan encounters may be as constant and worthy as Edwin.
By Robert Burns · First published 1787 · Genre: Dedication, Lyric Poetry · 114 words
First lines
Again the silent wheels of time / Their annual round have driven, / And you, tho' scarce in maiden prime, / Are so much nearer Heaven.
No gifts have I from Indian coasts / The infant year to hail; / I send you more than India boasts, / In Edwin's simple tale.
Our sex with guile, and faithless love, / Is charg'd, perhaps too true; / But may, dear maid, each lover prove / An Edwin still to you.
Genres
- Dedication — The verses address the recipient of a New Year's book gift and conclude with a wish for her.
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed quatrains express the speaker's reflections on passing time and hopes for the young recipient.
Tags
Scottish poetry · eighteenth-century poetry · New Year's gift · gift poem · dedicatory verse · Miss Logan · female addressee · youth and aging · passage of time · annual renewal · mortality · Heaven
What this Textopian page supports
To Miss Logan, with Beattie's Poems, for a New-Year's Gift is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1787 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1787 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Dedication, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 114 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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