Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 245. Versicles on Sign-Posts |
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| CURS’D be the man, the poorest wretch in life, | |
| The crouching vassal to a tyrant wife! | |
| Who has no will but by her high permission, | |
| Who has not sixpence but in her possession; | |
| Who must to he, his dear friend’s secrets tell, | 5 |
| Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell. | |
| Were such the wife had fallen to my part, | |
| I’d break her spirit or I’d break her heart; | |
| I’d charm her with the magic of a switch, | |
| I’d kiss her maids, and kick the perverse b——h. | 10 |
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