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Lines on Fergusson, the Poet

by Robert Burns, 1792

Ill-fated genius! Heaven-taught Fergusson!
  What heart that feels and will not yield a tear,
To think Life's sun did set e'er well begun
  To shed its influence on thy bright career.

O why should truest Worth and Genius pine
  Beneath the iron grasp of Want and Woe,
While titled knaves and idiot-Greatness shine
  In all the splendour Fortune can bestow?

Published in Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
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Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.