THE BUILDER January 1917

A PRAYER IN PROSPECT OF DEATH

BY ROBERT BURNS

"A prayer when fainting fits, and other alarming symptoms of a
pleurisy or some other dangerous disorder, which indeed still
threaten me, first put nature on the alarm." (First Common-Place
Book, under date August, 1784.)

A manuscript in the Burns Monument, Edinburgh, has the heading, "A
Prayer when dangerously threatened with pleuritic attacks."

There seems to be an uncertainty about the date of this poem, for
though assigned to 1784, the entry in the "Common-Place Book" above
noted proves it earlier than the August of that year. The poem was
probably written during the poet's residence in Irvine, when, as
would appear in a letter written to his father, 27th December,
1781, he had the prospect of "perhaps very soon" bidding "adieu to
all the pains and uneasiness and disquietudes of this weary life."
(Burns Poems, Cambridge edition.)

O Thou unknown, Almighty Cause 
Of all my hope and fear !
In whose dread presence, ere an hour, 
Perhaps I must appear!
If I have wandered in those paths
Of life I ought to shun--
As something, loudly, in my breast,
Remonstrates I have done-
Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me 
With passions wild and strong;
And list'ning to their witching voice 
Has often led me wrong.
Where human weakness has come short, 
Or frailty stept aside,
Do Thou, All-good--for such Thou art-- 
In shades of darkness hide.
Where with intention I have erred, 
No other plea I have
But, thou art good; and Goodness still 
Delighteth to forgive.
