Lyric Poem · Love
Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father
by Robert Burns
O YE whose cheek the tear of pity stains,
Draw near with pious rev’rence, and attend!
Here lie the loving husband’s dear remains,
The tender father, and the gen’rous friend;
The pitying heart that felt for human woe,
The dauntless heart that fear’d no human pride;
The friend of man-to vice alone a foe;
For “ev’n his failings lean’d to virtue’s side.” 1
Note 1. Goldsmith.—R. B. [back]
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“Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/epitaph-on-my-ever-honoured-father
Quick facts
- Poem
- Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 9 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Sad, Friendship, 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
- 9 lines · 2 stanzas of 1–8 lines
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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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
- PoetryDBEpitaph on my Ever Honoured Father 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 9dce66596e3ca757…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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