Lyric Poem · War & Remembrance
I hae a Wife o’ my Ain
by Robert Burns
1I HAE a wife of my ain,
2 I’ll partake wi’ naebody;
3I’ll take Cuckold frae nane,
4 I’ll gie Cuckold to naebody.
5I hae a penny to spend,
6 There—thanks to naebody!
7I hae naething to lend,
8 I’ll borrow frae naebody.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“I hae a Wife o’ my Ain” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/i-hae-a-wife-o-my-ain
Quick facts
- Poem
- I hae a Wife o’ my Ain
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- War & Remembrance
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
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 6-7 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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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
- PoetryDBI hae a Wife o’ my Ain 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 9d491a9837f9ec00…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.