Poem by Robert Burns

On Seeing a Wounded Hare Limp by Me, Which a Fellow Had Just Shot at

INHUMAN man! curse on thy barb’rous art,
  And blasted be thy murder-aiming eye;
  May never pity soothe thee with a sigh,
Nor ever pleasure glad thy cruel heart!

Go, live, poor wanderer of the wood and field,
  The bitter little that of life remains;
  No more the thickening brakes and verdant plains
To thee shall home, or food, or pastime yield.

Seek, mangled wretch, some place of wonted rest,
  No more of rest, but now thy dying bed!
  The sheltering rushes whistling o’er thy head,
The cold earth with thy bloody bosom prest.

Perhaps a mother’s anguish adds its woe;
  The playful pair crowd fondly by thy side:
  Ah, helpless nurslings! who will now provide
That life a mother only can bestow?

Oft as by winding Nith, I, musing, wait
  The sober eve, or hail the cheerful dawn,
  I’ll miss thee sporting o’er the dewy lawn,
And curse the riffian’s aim, and mourn thy hapless fate.

1. I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen
2. The Flowery Banks of Cree
3. Blythe Was She
4. The Banks of Nith (THE THAMES flows proudly to the sea)
5. Farewell to Ballochmyle

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