Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
430 / 519
Public-domain lyrics

The joyful Widower

Robert Burns

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

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 430 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

I married with a scolding wife

The fourteenth of November;

She made me weary of my life,

By one unruly member.

Long did I bear the heavy yoke,

And many griefs attended;

But, to my comfort be it spoke,

Now, now her life is ended.

Verse 2

We lived full one-and-twenty years

A man and wife together;

At length from me her course she steer'd,

And gone I know not whither:

Would I could guess, I do profess,

I speak, and do not flatter,

Of all the women in the world,

I never could come at her.

Verse 3

Her body is bestowed well,

A handsome grave does hide her;

But sure her soul is not in hell,

The deil would ne'er abide her.

I rather think she is aloft,

And imitating thunder;

For why,—methinks I hear her voice

Tearing the clouds asunder.

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), “The joyful Widower”

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