Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

To Mr. Cunningham

Robert Burns

“To Mr. Cunningham” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 462 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

Now spring has clad the groves in green,

And strew'd the lea wi' flowers;

The furrow'd waving corn is seen

Rejoice in fostering showers;

While ilka thing in nature join

Their sorrows to forego,

O why thus all alone are mine

The weary steps of woe?

Verse 2

The trout within yon wimpling burn

Glides swift, a silver dart,

And safe beneath a shady thorn

Defies the angler's art:

My life was once that careless stream,

That wanton trout was I;

But love, wi' unrelenting beam,

Has scorch'd my fountain dry.

Verse 3

The little flow'ret's peaceful lot,

In yonder cliff that grows,

Which, save the linnet's flight, I wot,

Nae ruder visit knows,

Was mine; till love has o'er me past,

And blighted a' my bloom,

And now beneath the withering blast

My youth and joy consume.

Verse 4

The waken'd lav' rock warbling springs,

And climbs the early sky,

Winnowing blithe her dewy wings

In morning's rosy eye;

As little reckt I sorrow's power,

Until the flowery snare

O' witching love, in luckless hour,

Made me the thrall o' care.

Verse 5

O had my fate been Greenland's snows

Or Afric's burning zone,

Wi' man and nature leagu'd my foes,

So Peggy ne'er I'd known!

The wretch whase doom is, "Hope nae mair!"

What tongue his woes can tell!

Within whose bosom, save despair,

Nae kinder spirits dwell.

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), “To Mr. Cunningham”

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.
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