‘for all that’) laments the fact that equality does not exist among men.

And did the final two lines inspire The Proclaimers to write ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’? One cannot choose but wonder.Ĭertainly, the poem reads like a song: it’s a lyric, through and through, with the abcb rhyme scheme and the tetrameter and trimeter metre recalling the traditional ballads (associated, fittingly enough, with the Scottish Borders).Īlso known by its first line, ‘Is There for Honest Poverty’, ‘A Man’s a Man for A’ That’ (i.e. Bob Dylan called it his single biggest inspiration. Possibly based on a traditional lyric, this poem – also called ‘My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose’ – is one of the most widely anthologised love poems in English. Like John Betjeman’s later poem ‘In Westminster Abbey’, ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’ uses the idea of a prayer to expose religious hypocrisy and ruthless self-preservation – here, the self-preservation of ‘Holy Willie’, a church elder. This poem shows just what a great satirical poet Burns could be. The one thing we cannot do is take the view of that louse. As Burns concludes, ‘O wad some Power the giftie gie us / To see oursels as ithers see us!’ Such a power or ability would save us a lot of bother and ‘foolish notions’ but we cannot see ourselves as others see us.

Poems and songs by robert burns