Explore "Sonnet on Receiving a Favour" by Robert Burns on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
10 Aug., 1979.
Addressed to Robert Graham, Esq. of Fintry.
I call no Goddess to inspire my strains, / A fabled Muse may suit a bard that feigns: / Friend of my life! my ardent spirit burns, / And all the tribute of my heart returns, / For boons accorded, goodness ever new, / The gifts still dearer, as the giver you. / Thou orb of day! thou other paler light! / And all ye many sparkling stars of night! / If aught that giver from my mind efface, / If I that giver's bounty e'er disgrace, / Then roll to me along your wand'rig spheres, / Only to number out a villain's years! / I lay my hand upon my swelling breast, / And grateful would, but cannot speak the rest.