Lyric Poem · Love
Lord Gregory: A Ballad
by Robert Burns
1O MIRK, mirk is this midnight hour,
2 And loud the tempest’s roar;
3A waefu’ wanderer seeks thy tower,
4 Lord Gregory, ope thy door.
5An exile frae her father’s ha’,
6 And a’ for loving thee;
7At least some pity on me shaw,
8 If love it may na be.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Lord Gregory: A Ballad” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/lord-gregory-a-ballad
Quick facts
- Poem
- Lord Gregory: A Ballad
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Peace
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
- 24 lines · 3 octaves
- Line length
- Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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
- PoetryDBLord Gregory: A Ballad 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 1379575eff05e6f9…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.