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  • Epitaph on my own Friend
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Epitaph on my own Friend

Robert Burns

An honest man here lies at rest,
As e’er God with His image blest:
The friend of man, the friend of truth;
The friend of age, and guide of youth:
Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,
Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:
If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.


Robert Burns

from The Canongate Burns (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2001)

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18th century poems elegies For Funerals friendship scottish poems
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Robert Burns1759 - 1796

If ever a poet understood the character of his nation, he was Robert Burns. The language he was most fluent in wasn’t so much Scots or English – it was the language of the heart.
More about Robert Burns

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