A Mother's Lament for the loss of her only son
A Mother's Lament for the loss of her only Son ----
"Fate gave the word, the arrow sped,"
And pierc'd my Darling's heart;
And with him all the joys are fled,
Life can to me impart. ----
By cruel hands the Sapling drops,
In dust dishonor'd laid:
So fell the pride of all my hopes,
My age's future shade. ----
The mother-linnet in the brake
Bewails her ravish'd young;
So I, for my lost Darling's sake,
Lament the live day long. ----
Death, oft I've fear'd thy fatal blow;
Now, fond, I bare my breast;
O, do thou come & lay me low
With him I love at rest!
To the Memory of Alex Gordon Stewart only
Son of Genl Alex Hewart M O. and Mrs Hewart
of Afton who died at a Military Academy
at Strasburgh on the 5th of December 1787
aged 16
"Fate gave the word, the arrow sped,"
And pierc'd my Darling's heart;
And with him all the joys are fled,
Life can to me impart. ----
By cruel hands the Sapling drops,
In dust dishonor'd laid:
So fell the pride of all my hopes,
My age's future shade. ----
The mother-linnet in the brake
Bewails her ravish'd young;
So I, for my lost Darling's sake,
Lament the live day long. ----
Death, oft I've fear'd thy fatal blow;
Now, fond, I bare my breast;
O, do thou come & lay me low
With him I love at rest!
To the Memory of Alex Gordon Stewart only
Son of Genl Alex Hewart M O. and Mrs Hewart
of Afton who died at a Military Academy
at Strasburgh on the 5th of December 1787
aged 16
Key details
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/02/160
- Alt. number
- 3.6215.a
- Date
- 27 September 1788
- On display
- Yes
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/02/160
- Alt. number
- 3.6215.a
- Date
- 27 September 1788
- On display
- Yes
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
Description
A Mother's Lament for the loss of her only son part of the Afton manuscript collection.
Robert originally composed this poem for Mrs Fergusson of Craigdarroch whose son died 5 November 1787.
The form of this poem is four cross-rhymed quatrains (ABAB). The content of the poem is, indeed, a mother’s lament. After 'Fate (had) gave the word', Death, with an arrow as a metaphor, 'Pierc'd my darling's heart' - her son's. And so, she too bares her 'breast' to Death in order to be reunited with her son.
This particular manuscript is part of the Afton Manuscript collection. This collection of thirteen poems was presented by Robert to Mrs Alexander Stewart of Stair in 1791.
This manuscript is annotated by another writer as commemorating the death of Alexander Gordon Stewart, the only son of General and Mrs Stewart who died at Strasbourg military academy on 5th December, 1787.
This particular manuscript is part of the Afton Manuscript collection. This collection of thirteen poems was presented by Robert to Mrs Alexander Stewart of Stair in 1791.
This manuscript is annotated by another writer as commemorating the death of Alexander Gordon Stewart, the only son of General and Mrs Stewart who died at Strasbourg military academy on 5th December, 1787.
Archive information
Themes
Hierarchy
-
Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs
(
a sub-fonds is a subdivision in the archival material)
- A Mother's Lament for the loss of her only son