Back to Index

Complimentary versicles to Jessie Lewars

by Robert Burns, 1796

The toast


fill me with the rosy wine,
Call a toast, a toast divine:
Giveth me Poet's darling flame,
Lovely Jessie be her name;
Then thou mayest freely boast,
Thou hast given a peerless toast.


The MENAGERIE


Talk not to me of savages,
  From Afric's burning sun;
No savage e'er could rend my heart,
  As Jessie, thou hast done:
But Jessie's lovely hand in mine,
  A mutual faith to plight,
Not even to view the heavenly choir,
  Would be so blest a sight.


Jessie's ILLNESS


Say, sages, what's the charm on earth
  Can turn Death's dart aside!
It is not purity and worth,
  Else Jessie had not died.


On her RECOVERY


But rarely seen since Nature's birth,
  The natives of the sky;
Yet still one seraph's left on earth,
  For Jessie did not die.

Published in Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
Tags:

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.