Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
399 / 519
Public-domain lyrics

The Lazy Mist

Robert Burns

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

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 399 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

The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill,

Concealing the course of the dark-winding rill;

How languid the scenes, late so sprightly, appear,

As autumn to winter resigns the pale year!

The forests are leafless, the meadows are brown,

And all the gay foppery of summer is flown:

Apart let me wander, apart let me muse,

How quick time is flying, how keen fate pursues;

How long I have lived, but how much lived in vain:

How little of life's scanty span may remain:

What aspects, old Time, in his progress, has worn;

What ties, cruel fate in my bosom has torn.

How foolish, or worse, till our summit is gain'd!

And downward, how weaken'd, how darken'd, how pain'd!

This life's not worth having with all it can give,

For something beyond it poor man sure must live.

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 Lazy Mist”

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