Address to the Deil is a poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796 (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire It was written in Mossgiel in 1785 and published in the Kilmarnock volume in 1786. Mossgiel is a location in New South Wales, Australia, in Carrathool Shire. Events January 1 - First publication of the Daily Universal Register (later The Times) Thomas The Kilmarnock volume, also known as Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, — printed and issued by John Wilson Events January 19 - Franziska Stading plays the female lead in Gustav Vasa at the Royal Swedish Opera It is generally considered one of Burns' best poems.
The poem was written as a humorous portrayal of the Devil and the pulpit oratory of the Presbyterian Church. The Devil is the Presbyterianism is a family of Christian denominations within the Reformed branch of Protestant Western Christianity The poem starts by quoting from Milton's Paradise Lost as a contrast with the first two lines of the poem itself:
- "O thou! Whatever title suit thee,
- Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick or Clootie"
These lines are also a parody of a couplet in Alexander Pope's satire The Dunciad. John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and Paradise Lost is an Epic poem in Blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. Satan, ( Standard Hebrew Satan'el, English accuser) is a term that originates from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744 is generally regarded as the greatest English Poet of the eighteenth century best known for his Satirical The Dunciad (ˈdʌnsiˌæd is a landmark literary Satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times
The poem was written in a Habbie stanza with the stanza six lines long and the rhyme aaabab. The Burns stanza is a verse form named after the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Burns used a similar stanza in Death and Doctor Hornbrook.
The poem is also skeptical of the Devil's existence and of his intentions to punish sinners for all eternity 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
Online References
- 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
Other References
- Robert Burns Robert Burns Penguin Classics 1994 ISBN 0-14-042382-6
- David Punter, A Companion to the Gothic Blackwell Publishing 2001 ISBN 0-631-23199-4 page 73
- Robert Burns, The Works of Robert Burns Wordsworth Editions 1998 ISBN 1-85326-415-6 especially page 571
- Jerome J McGann, Byron and Romanticism Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 0-521-00722-4 page 269
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