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On reading, in a newspaper, the Death of J.McLeod, Esq. Brother to a Young Lady

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/02/107
Alt. number
3.6267
Date
1787
On display
No
Creator
Burns, Robert (Author)

Description

On reading, in a newspaper, the Death of J.McLeod, Esq. Brother to a Young Lady.

Title continues "a particular friend of the Author's". The "Young Lady" being Miss Isabella McLeod. Begins. "Sad thy tale, thou idle page". 6 four-line verses. There is another copy of this in the Glenriddell MS Vol. 1 and also in this collection s

This Poem is subtitled by Burns "brother to a young lady, a particular friend to the author". The lady in question was Isabella McLeod whom Burns had met in Edinburgh and whose brother's death by suicide he had seen reported in a newspaper and moved him to write this sad poem. (poem no 162)

In page one Burns imagines the early joy Isabella will have had in her brother's companionship and the hurt and sadness brought about by his untimely passing.

In this second page of the poem, Burns says that God alone can heal Isabella's grief and points her to the other side of the grave where one will be happy at last.

John McLeod of Raasay died on 20th July 1787 within a year of his father's death. Burns originally sent these lines from Mossgiel but here they have been copied out on a later occasion on pages 6 & 7 of this collection of poems.

Archive information


Hierarchy

  1. Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs ( )
  2. On reading, in a newspaper, the Death of J.McLeod, Esq. Brother to a Young Lady

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