Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
287 / 519
Public-domain lyrics

On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq.

Robert Burns

“On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq.” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 287 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

Lone on the bleaky hills the straying flocks

Shun the fierce storms among the sheltering rocks;

Down from the rivulets, red with dashing rains,

The gathering floods burst o'er the distant plains;

Beneath the blasts the leafless forests groan;

The hollow caves return a sullen moan.

Verse 2

Ye hills, ye plains, ye forests, and ye caves,

Ye howling winds, and wintry swelling waves!

Unheard, unseen, by human ear or eye,

Sad to your sympathetic scenes I fly;

Where to the whistling blast and water's roar,

Pale Scotia's recent wound I may deplore.

Verse 3

O heavy loss, thy country ill could bear!

A loss these evil days can ne'er repair!

Justice, the high vice-gerent of her God,

Her doubtful balance eyed, and sway'd her rod;

Hearing the tidings of the fatal blow

She sunk, abandon'd to the wildest woe.

Verse 4

Wrongs, injuries, from many a darksome den,

Now gay in hope explore the paths of men:

See from his cavern grim Oppression rise,

And throw on poverty his cruel eyes;

Keen on the helpless victim see him fly,

And stifle, dark, the feebly-bursting cry:

Verse 5

Mark ruffian violence, distain'd with crimes,

Rousing elate in these degenerate times;

View unsuspecting Innocence a prey,

As guileful Fraud points out the erring way:

While subtile Litigation's pliant tongue

The life-blood equal sucks of Right and Wrong:

Hark, injured Want recounts th' unlisten'd tale,

And much-wrong'd Mis'ry pours th' unpitied wail!

Verse 6

Ye dark waste hills, and brown unsightly plains,

To you I sing my grief-inspired strains:

Ye tempests, rage! ye turbid torrents, roll!

Ye suit the joyless tenor of my soul.

Life's social haunts and pleasures I resign,

Be nameless wilds and lonely wanderings mine,

To mourn the woes my country must endure,

That wound degenerate ages cannot cure.

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), “On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq.”

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

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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.
Keep tracing

More from Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics.

01A Rose-budPublic-domain lyrics02A red, red RosePublic-domain lyrics03Address to a LadyPublic-domain lyrics04AdieuPublic-domain lyrics