Song—I Murder hate

I murder hate by flood or field,
  Tho' glory's name may screen us;
In wars at home I'll spend my blood—
  Life-giving wars of Venus.
The deities that I adore
  Are social Peace and Plenty;
I'm better pleas'd to make one more,
  Than be the death of twenty.

I would not die like Socrates,
  For all the fuss of Plato;
Nor would I with Leonidas,
  Nor yet would I with Cato:
The zealots of the Church and State
  Shall ne'er my mortal foes be;
But let me have bold Zimri's fate,
  Within the arms of Cozbi!

Published in Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

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