Lyric Poem · Love

Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father

by Robert Burns

Reading room

1O YE whose cheek the tear of pity stains,

2 Draw near with pious rev’rence, and attend!

3Here lie the loving husband’s dear remains,

4 The tender father, and the gen’rous friend;

5The pitying heart that felt for human woe,

6 The dauntless heart that fear’d no human pride;

7The friend of man-to vice alone a foe;

8 For “ev’n his failings lean’d to virtue’s side.” 1

9 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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Lyric Poem Love Sad Friendship Short

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