Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Caledonia

Robert Burns

“Caledonia” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 127 1887 · historical text
Public domainScottish songSong lyrics
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

There was once a day, but old Time then was young,

That brave Caledonia, the chief of her line,

From some of your northern deities sprung:

(Who knows not that brave Caledonia's divine?)

From Tweed to the Orcades was her domain,

To hunt, or to pasture, or do what she would:

Her heavenly relations there fixed her reign,

And pledg'd her their godheads to warrant it good.

Verse 2

A lambkin in peace, but a lion in war,

The pride of her kindred the heroine grew;

Her grandsire, old Odin triumphantly swore,

'Whoe'er shall provoke thee, th' encounter shall rue!'

With tillage or pasture at times she would sport,

To feed her fair flocks by her green rustling corn:

But chiefly the woods were her fav'rite resort,

Her darling amusement, the hounds and the horn.

Verse 3

Long quiet she reign'd; till thitherward steers

A flight of bold eagles from Adria's strand;

Repeated, successive, for many long years,

They darken'd the air, and they plunder'd the land.

Their pounces were murder, and terror their cry;

They conquer'd and ruin'd a world beside;

She took to the hills, and her arrows let fly,

The daring invaders they fled or they died.

Verse 4

The fell Harpy-raven took wing from the north,

The scourge of the seas, and the dread of the shore;

The wild Scandinavian boar issu'd forth

To wanton in carnage and wallow in gore:

O'er countries and kingdoms their fury prevail'd,

No arts could appease them, no arms could rebel:

But brave Caledonia in vain they assail'd,

As Largs well can witness, and Loncartie tell.

Verse 5

The Cameleon-savage disturb'd her repose,

With tumult, disquiet, rebellion, and strife;

Provok'd beyond bearing, at last she arose,

And robb'd him at once of his hopes and his life:

The Anglian lion, the terror of France,

Oft prowling, ensanguin'd the Tweed's silver flood;

But, taught by the bright Caledonian lance,

He learned to fear in his own native wood.

Verse 6

Thus bold, independent, unconquer'd, and free,

Her bright course of glory for ever shall run:

For brave Caledonia immortal must be;

I'll prove it from Euclid as clear as the sun:

Rectangle-triangle, the figure we'll choose,

The upright is Chance, and old Time is the base;

But brave Caledonia's the hypothenuse;

Then ergo, she'll match them, and match them always.

Credits

Written by Robert Burns

Words by Robert Burns. Historical text published in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887), “Caledonia”

Every text in this 1887 collected edition is by Robert Burns (1759-1796), who died more than 230 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide; the edition carries a Wikisource PD-old determination and a pre-1931 United States publication.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

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Retrieved 2026-10-25. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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