Lyric Poem · Life
Epigram on a Suicide
by Robert Burns
EARTH’D up, here lies an imp o’ hell,
Planted by Satan’s dibble;
Poor silly wretch, he’s damned himsel’,
To save the Lord the trouble.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Epigram on a Suicide” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/epigram-on-a-suicide
Quick facts
- Poem
- Epigram on a Suicide
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 4 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Life, Short
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
- 4 lines · one 4-line stanza
- Line length
- Consistent with common metre. Alternating eight- and six-syllable lines — the hymn stanza (8.6.8.6), the most-used quatrain in English verse.
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
- PoetryDBEpigram on a Suicide 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 36dd94895cb414fd…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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