Lyric Poem · Winter
The Henpecked Husband
by Robert Burns
Chorus.—Robin shure in hairst,
I shure wi’ him.
Fient a heuk had I,
Yet I stack by him.
I GAED up to Dunse,
To warp a wab o’ plaiden,
At his daddie’s yett,
Wha met me but Robin:
Robin shure, &c.
Was na Robin bauld,
Tho’ I was a cotter,
Play’d me sic a trick,
An’ me the El’er’s dochter!
Robin shure, &c.
Robin promis’d me
A’ my winter vittle;
Fient haet he had but three
Guse-feathers and a whittle!
Robin shure, &c.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Henpecked Husband” by Robert Burns — quilloak.com/poems/the-henpecked-husband
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Henpecked Husband
- Poet
- Robert Burns
- Length
- 19 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Winter, Nature
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
- 19 lines · 4 stanzas of 4–5 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 4-7 syllables (median 5). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
- Refrain
- “Robin shure, &c.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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
- PoetryDBThe Henpecked Husband 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 3881f851c1dd0cae…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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