Epigram on the said Occasion

Portrait of Robert Burns
Robert Burns 1759–1796
49Poems and Songs. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

O DEATH, had’st thou but spar’d his life, Whom we this day lament, We freely wad exchanged the wife, And a’ been weel content. Ev’n as he is, cauld in his graff, The swap we yet will do’t; Tak thou the carlin’s carcase aff, Thou’se get the saul o’boot.

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