Lyric Poem · Love
Farewell to the Banks of Ayr
by Robert Burns
1THE GLOOMY night is gath’ring fast,
2Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast,
3Yon murky cloud is foul with rain,
4I see it driving o’er the plain;
5The hunter now has left the moor.
6The scatt’red coveys meet secure;
7While here I wander, prest with care,
8Along the lonely banks of Ayr.
9The Autumn mourns her rip’ning corn
10By early Winter’s ravage torn;
11Across her placid, azure sky,
12She sees the scowling tempest fly:
13Chill runs my blood to hear it rave;
14I think upon the stormy wave,
15Where many a danger I must dare,
16Far from the bonie banks of Ayr.
17’Tis not the surging billow’s roar,
18’Tis not that fatal, deadly shore;
19Tho’ death in ev’ry shape appear,
20The wretched have no more to fear:
21But round my heart the ties are bound,
22That heart transpierc’d with many a wound;
23These bleed afresh, those ties I tear,
24To leave the bonie banks of Ayr.
25Farewell, old Coila’s hills and dales,
26Her healthy moors and winding vales;
27The scenes where wretched Fancy roves,
28Pursuing past, unhappy loves!
29Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes!
30My peace with these, my love with those:
31The bursting tears my heart declare—
32Farewell, the bonie banks of Ayr!
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“Farewell to the Banks of Ayr” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/farewell-to-the-banks-of-ayr
Quick facts
- Poem
- Farewell to the Banks of Ayr
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 32 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Nature, Death & Loss
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
- 32 lines · 4 octaves
- Line length
- Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter 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
- PoetryDBFarewell to the Banks of Ayr 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 610064fa07aad08a…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.