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"Address to the Devil" is a poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns. It was written in Mossgiel in 1785 and published in the Kilmarnock volume in 1786. The poem was written as a humorous portrayal of the Devil and the pulpit oratory of the Presbyterian Church.
Content
It begins 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.
The poem was written in a Habbie stanza with the stanza six lines long and the rhyme scheme 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 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.
See also
References
Further reading
- 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
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
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