Lines Written on a Window of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries
By Robert Burns
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.
Poem Analysis:
Scrawled, as the title tells us, on a windowpane of a tavern in Dumfries, this brief quatrain by Robert Burns distills the poet’s personal philosophy in four elegant lines. It pits Wisdom—symbolic of cautious, measured living—against Folly—the spirit of freedom, pleasure, and passionate experience. The poem, with its simple ABAB rhyme scheme, reads like a toast, a challenge, and a confession all at once. Through it, Burns reaffirms his lifelong devotion to spontaneity over convention, and joy over austerity.
Context: A Poet, a Tavern, and a Pane of Glass
Robert Burns was no stranger to tavern life. The Globe Tavern in Dumfries was one of his frequent haunts, and like many of his impromptu compositions, this poem is believed to have been literally scratched into the glass window of the establishment—an act both irreverent and symbolic. It is the ultimate union of form and function: Burns writing about folly while embodying it, engraving verses in a place of revelry rather than a scholar’s study.
Structure and Rhyme Scheme: Simplicity with Punch (ABAB)
The poem is a quatrain with an ABAB rhyme scheme:
- A: treasures
- B: live
- A: pleasures
- B: give
This alternating rhyme produces a subtle musicality and balance, while reinforcing the poem’s core opposition between Wisdom and Folly. The structure is neat and self-contained, mirroring the tidy logic of the argument: that joy and emotional richness are more valuable than measured restraint.
Line-by-Line Analysis
“The greybeard, old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures,”
Burns opens by personifying Wisdom as an aged man—a “greybeard,” perhaps wise but also stiff, humorless, and antiquated. The term “treasures” likely refers to the gains of wisdom: temperance, prudence, moderation, and stability. There is a touch of condescension in “may boast,” as though Burns acknowledges these rewards but finds them uninspiring.
Interpretation: Wisdom has its place, and its rewards are recognized—but for Burns, they lack fire. Age and experience bring calm, but also detachment from the vibrancy of life.
“Give me with gay Folly to live;”
Here, the speaker rejects old Wisdom’s treasures and instead opts to “live with gay Folly.” The word “gay” in Burns’s time connoted joy, liveliness, and exuberance rather than its modern usage. Folly—typically dismissed as foolishness—is not derided here but elevated. It is a conscious choice, not an accidental lapse in judgment.
Interpretation: Folly is framed as an antidote to lifeless wisdom. Living with Folly means embracing passion, unpredictability, and sensual delight. It is a poetic declaration of allegiance to joy.
“I grant him his calm-blooded, time-settled pleasures,”
In a gesture of fairness, the speaker “grants” Wisdom his due. The pleasures of wisdom are described as “calm-blooded” and “time-settled”—phrases that suggest they are measured, restrained, and shaped by long experience. These pleasures are steady, but perhaps dull; dignified, but distant from the vitality of youth and desire.
Interpretation: Burns acknowledges that wisdom offers its own kind of pleasure, but subtly critiques its lack of passion and spontaneity. “Calm-blooded” serves as a contrast to the heat of Folly’s “raptures.”
“But Folly has raptures to give.”
The last line delivers the poem’s resounding thesis: Folly offers “raptures”—intense, ecstatic moments of feeling. The word “raptures” invokes not only pleasure, but a kind of transcendence. It suggests that Folly allows one to be lifted above the mundane, to experience the sublime, the poetic, and the human in full.
Interpretation: Unlike Wisdom’s tame pleasures, Folly’s raptures offer emotional intensity, immediacy, and perhaps even danger—but these are precisely what make them worth having.
Themes and Philosophical Implications
- Wisdom vs. Folly: At the heart of the poem is the classic dialectic between rational restraint and emotional indulgence. Burns flips the moral norm by presenting Folly not as sin or error, but as an intentional and valuable lifestyle. This aligns with a recurring thread in his work: the defense of authentic human feeling over social propriety or cold rationalism.
- Life and Vitality: The poem’s true concern is how to live meaningfully. Wisdom’s “calm-blooded pleasures” are safe but subdued. Folly’s raptures are risky, but they stir the soul. Burns, ever the romantic and the rebel, throws in his lot with the latter.
- Carpe Diem: Echoing the classical carpe diem (seize the day) tradition, Burns urges readers to embrace joy while they can. There is no moral scolding here—only a lyrical celebration of the immediate and the intense.
- Tone and Voice: Defiant Yet Good-Humored: Burns’s tone is playful yet firm. This is not a reckless tirade but a light-footed assertion of personal truth. His voice is that of a man who knows the rules of decorum but chooses to dance around them. There’s no hostility toward Wisdom, only a clear-eyed preference for Folly.
Burns and the Romantic Spirit
While predating the full bloom of Romanticism, Burns’s sentiments in this poem anticipate many of its themes: emotional depth, personal freedom, and the value of lived experience over inherited moral codes. Burns, though steeped in Enlightenment thinking, often resisted its excesses of reason. In this poem, he plants his flag firmly in the territory of feeling.
A Toast to Folly
In Lines Written on a Window of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries, Robert Burns offers a succinct and vivid manifesto. He aligns himself with pleasure, spontaneity, and passion over cold prudence. With an ABAB rhyme scheme that reinforces the balanced contrast of ideas, Burns defends the beauty of emotional excess—of moments that shake the soul rather than calm it.
Etched into the glass of a tavern where laughter and drink flowed freely, this poem is both declaration and artifact: a reminder that life’s richness lies not in caution, but in the courage to feel deeply.