Lyric Poem · Friendship
Lines to an Old Sweetheart
by Robert Burns
1ONCE fondly lov’d, and still remember’d dear,
2 Sweet early object of my youthful vows,
3Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere,
4 Friendship! ’tis all cold duty now allows.
5And when you read the simple artless rhymes,
6 One friendly sigh for him—he asks no more,
7Who, distant, burns in flaming torrid climes,
8 Or haply lies beneath th’ Atlantic roar.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Lines to an Old Sweetheart” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/lines-to-an-old-sweetheart
Quick facts
- Poem
- Lines to an Old Sweetheart
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Friendship, Love, Sad, 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
- 8 lines · one 8-line stanza
- 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
- PoetryDBLines to an Old Sweetheart 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 ee01e1df13693254…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.