Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio Scotland,1 min

Lines written on windows of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries

The works of Robert Burns

Available for over a year

The greybeard, old wisdom, may boast of his treasures, Give me with gay folly to live; I grant him his calm-blooded, time-settled pleasures, But folly has raptures to give. I Murder hate by field and flood, Tho' glory's name may screen us; In wars at home I'll spend my blood, Life-giving wars of Venus: The deities that I adore Are social Peace and Plenty; I'm better pleased to make one more, Than be the death of twenty. I would not die like Socrates, For all the fuss of Plato; Nor would I with Leonidas, Nor yet would I with Cato: The Zealots of the Church, or State, Shall ne'er my mortal foes be, But let me have bold Zimri's fate, Within the arms of Cosbi! My bottle is a holy pool, That heals the wounds o' care an' dool; And pleasure is a wanton trout, An ye drink it, ye'll find him out. In politics if thou would'st mix, And mean thy fortunes be; Bear this in mind, be deaf and blind, Let great folks hear and see.

Programme Website
More episodes