Ah, woe is me, my Mother dear

Portrait of Robert Burns
Robert Burns 1759–1796
7Poems and Songs. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

AH, woe is me, my mother dear! A man of strife ye've born me: For sair contention I maun bear; They hate, revile, and scorn me.

I ne'er could lend on bill or band, That five per cent. might blest me; And borrowing, on the tither hand, The deil a ane wad trust me.

Yet I, a coin-denièd wight, By Fortune quite discarded; Ye see how I am, day and night, By lad and lass blackguarded!

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