Verses to Clarinda

Key details

Archive number: NTS/02/25/BRN/02/155
Alt. number: 3.6390
Date: 7 March 1788
On display: No
Creator: Burns, Robert (Author)
Recipient: McLehose, Agnes

Explore correspondence between the creator and recipient

Description

Verses to Clarinda. Begins "Fair Empress of the Poet's soul"; 4 four-line verses.

Robert met Mrs Agnes McLehose during his extended trip to Edinburgh. Although they were both involved with other people, the two began an epistolatory affair which has been immortalized through their surviving correspondence. Addressing each other as ‘Sylvander’ and ‘Clarinda’ to protect their identities in case of exposure, Robert and Agnes continued to write to each other for years, even after Robert married Jean Armour and moved to Ellisland near Dumfries.

At the height of their affair in 1788, Robert sent these wine glasses to Agnes along with his love poem Verses to Clarinda:
'Fair Empress of the Poet’s soul,
And Queen of Poetesses;
Clarinda, take this little boon,
This humble pair of Glasses.'

Shaw mair

Archive information

Place of creation

Edinburgh

Themes

Hierarchy

Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs ( )
Verses to Clarinda