Explore "On the Birth of a Posthumous Child" by Robert Burns on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Born in peculiar circumstances of family distress.
Sweet flow'ret, pledge o' meikle love, / And ward o' mony a prayer, / What heart o' stane wad thou na move, / Sae helpless, sweet, and fair?
November hirples o'er the lea, / Chil, on thy lovely form: / And gane, alas! the shelt'ring tree, / Should shield thee frae the storm.
May He who gives the rain to pour, / And wings the blast to blaw, / Protect thee frae the driving show'r, / The bitter frost and snaw.
May He, the friend o' Woe and Want, / Who heals life's various stounds, / Protect and guard the mother plant, / And heal her cruel wounds.
But late she flourish'd, rooted fast, / Fair in the summer morn, / Now feebly bends she in the blast, / Unshelter'd and forlorn.
Blest be thy bloom, thou lovely gem, / Unscath'd by ruffian hand! / And from thee many a parent stem / Arise to deck our land!