The songs written by Burns in connection with politics are often lively and pointed, but they have little imagination, and the passing of the issues they dealt with has deprived them of general interest. Two classes of exceptions may be noted. He was, as we have seen, sympathetically interested in the French Revolution, and the fundamental doctrine of Liberty, Fraternity, Equality was cast by him into a poem which, he himself said, is "not really poetry," but is admirably vigorous rhetoric in verse, and has become the classic utterance of the democratic faith.
Is there for honest poverty That hings his head, an' a' that? [hangs] The coward slave, we pass him by, We dare be poor for a' that! For a' that, an' a' that, Our toils obscure, an' a' that; The rank is but the guinea's stamp; The man's the gowd for a' that. [gold]
What tho' on hamely fare we dine, Wear hodden-gray, and a' that; [coarse gray] Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, [Give] A man's a man for a' that. For a' that, an' a' that, Their tinsel show, an' a' that; The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that.
Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, [fellow] Wha struts, and stares, an' a' that; Tho' hundreds worship at his word, He's but a coof for a' that: [dolt] For a' that, an' a' that, His riband, star, and a' that, The man of independent mind, He looks and laughs at a' that.
A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, an' a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might, [above] Guid faith, he mauna fa' that! [must not claim] For a' that, an' a' that, Their dignities, an' a' that, The pith o' sense an' pride o' worth Are higher rank than a' that.
But let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a' that; That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, May bear the gree, an' a' that. [first place] For a' that, an' a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That man to man the warld o'er Shall brithers be for a' that.
Another, equally famous, sprang from his patriotic enthusiasm for the heroes of the Scottish war of independence, but was written with more than a slight consciousness of what seemed to him the similarity of the spirit then abroad in France.
ROBERT BRUCE'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY, BEFORE THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN