Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee well, my only luve!
And fare thee well a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
(d) The poet’s political and religious views have been given prominence by his admirers, but they scarcely deserve it. His politics, as expressed in such poems as A Man’s a Man for a’ That, are merely the natural utterances of a strong and sensitive mind deeply alive to the degradation of his native people. His religious views, in so far as they are colored by his unhappy personal experiences with the Scottish Church, are of value solely as the inspiration of capital satirical verse, but in The Cotter’s Saturday Night Burns pays a spontaneous and beautiful tribute to the piety of the Scottish peasant. The following extract from Holy Willie’s Prayer sufficiently reveals his personal bias:
Lord, bless Thy chosen in this place,