Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
459 . Sonnet on the Death of Robert Riddell
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Nor pour your descant grating on my soul;
Thou young-eyed Spring! gay in thy verdant stole,
More welcome were to me grim Winter’s wildest roar.
Ye blow upon the sod that wraps my friend! How can I to the tuneful strain attend? That strain flows round the untimely tomb where Riddell lies. And soothe the Virtues weeping o’er his bier: The man of worth—and hath not left his peer! Is in his “narrow house,” for ever darkly low. Me, memory of my loss will only meet.