Lyric Poem · Friendship
Lines to an Old Sweetheart
by Robert Burns
ONCE fondly lov’d, and still remember’d dear,
Sweet early object of my youthful vows,
Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere,
Friendship! ’tis all cold duty now allows.
And when you read the simple artless rhymes,
One friendly sigh for him—he asks no more,
Who, distant, burns in flaming torrid climes,
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).
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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.
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