Lyric Poem · Sad
Ah, woe is me, my Mother dear
by Robert Burns
AH, woe is me, my mother dear!
A man of strife ye’ve born me:
For sair contention I maun bear;
They hate, revile, and scorn me.
I ne’er could lend on bill or band,
That five per cent. might blest me;
And borrowing, on the tither hand,
The deil a ane wad trust me.
Yet I, a coin-deniиd wight,
By Fortune quite discarded;
Ye see how I am, day and night,
By lad and lass blackguarded!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Ah, woe is me, my Mother dear” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/ah-woe-is-me-my-mother-dear
Quick facts
- Poem
- Ah, woe is me, my Mother dear
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Sad
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 12 lines · 3 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Burns1759–1796
- Source record
- PoetryDBAh, woe is me, my Mother dear by robert-burns, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 eca923fa1212727d…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
Keep reading
When You Are Old
W. B. Yeats · 1893
12 lines · lyric
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe · 1849
41 lines · ballad
Remember
Christina Rossetti · 1862
14 lines · sonnet