"Address to the Devil" is a poem by Scottish poet

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

. It was written in Mossgiel in

1785 Events January–March * January 1 – The first issue of the ''Daily Universal Register'', later known as ''The Times'', is published in London. * January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries tr ...

and published in the ''

Kilmarnock volume ''Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect'', commonly known as the Kilmarnock Edition, is a collection of poetry by Robert Burns, first printed and issued by John Wilson of Kilmarnock on 31 July 1786. It was the first published edition of Burns' w ...

'' in

1786 Events January–March * January 3 – The third Treaty of Hopewell is signed, between the United States and the Choctaw. * January 6 – The outward bound East Indiaman '' Halsewell'' is wrecked on the south coast of Englan ...

. The poem was written as a humorous portrayal of the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

and the pulpit oratory of the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

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It begins by quoting from Milton's ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

'' as a contrast with the first two lines of the poem itself: These lines are also a parody of a couplet in Alexander Pope's satire ''

The Dunciad ''The Dunciad'' is a landmark, mock-heroic, narrative poem by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring ...

''. The poem was written in a

Habbie stanza The Burns stanza is a verse form named after the Scottish poet Robert Burns, who used it in some fifty poems. It was not, however, invented by Burns, and prior to his use of it was known as the standard Habbie, after the piper Habbie Simpson (1550� ...

with the stanza six lines long and the

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

AAABAB. Burns used a similar stanza in '' Death and Doctor Hornbook''. The poem is also skeptical of the Devil's existence and of his intentions to punish sinners for all

eternity Eternity, in common parlance, means Infinity, infinite time that never ends or the quality, condition, or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas ...

as in the stanza. :Hear me, auld Hangie, for a wee, :An’ let poor damned bodies be; :I’m sure sma’ pleasure it can gie, ::Ev’n to a deil, :To skelp an’ scaud poor dogs like me, ::An’ hear us squeel! This contrasts with the views contained in works such as ''Paradise Lost'' and the preachings of the Church.

References

External links

''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes'' Volume XI Chapter X on Burns

The Burns Encyclopedia article on ''Address to the Deil''
Poetry by Robert Burns 1786 poems Fiction about the Devil {{Scotland-stub

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References

Further reading

External links