Elegy On Willie Nicol’s Mare

by Robert Burns — a poem card from Justes Mots

Burns writes a playfully irreverent elegy for Willie Nicol's mare, Peg Nicholson, who drowned in the River Nith. The poem uses repetitive structure and dark humor to catalog the horse's life and tragic drowning, with sardonic observations about how a priest rode her hard. Written in a mock-heroic style, it simultaneously mocks the conventions of serious elegies while affectionately memorializing an ordinary creature.

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare,
As ever trod on airn;
But now she’s floating down the Nith,
And past the mouth o’ Cairn.

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare,
An’ rode thro’ thick and thin;
But now she’s floating down the Nith,…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection