Man Was Made to Mourn

Man Was Made to Mourn
by Robert Burns
Genre(s)Dirge
Publication date1784
Lines88 (11 stanzas)
MetreCommon metre
Full text
The Poetical Works of Robert Burns/Man was made to mourn at Wikisource

"Man Was Made to Mourn: A Dirge" is a dirge of eleven stanzas by the Scots poet Robert Burns, first published in 1784 and included in the first edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect in 1786. The poem is one of Burns's many early works that criticize class inequalities. It is known for its line protesting "Man's inhumanity to man", which has been widely quoted since its publication.