Holy Willie's Prayer
Holy Willie's prayer is a poem that was written
about a certain Willie Fisher who was an elder in the Parish church
of Mauchline, in Ayrshire. Fisher was a hypocrite and himself a
sinner who spied on people and reported them to the minister
if he thought they were doing wrong. The poem is a satire based
on Fisher's sickly self-righteousness. The phrase "Holy Willie"
have become part of the Scots language for describing someone that
is humourless and ultra religious.
Note: Burns was a God fearing man. This poem is
not anti religion. It is stricly a condemnation of religious hypocrisy
and self righteousness.
O Thou, that in the heavens does dwell,
As it pleases best Thysel',
Sends aen to Heaven an' ten to Hell,
For Thy glory,
And no for onie or ill
They've done afore Thee!
I bless and praise Thy matchless might,
When thousands Thou hast left in night,
That I am here afore Thy sight,
For gifts an' grace
A burning and a shining light
To a' this place.
What was I, or my generation,
That I should get sic exaltation?
I wha deserv'd most just damnation
For broken laws,
Six thousand years 'ere my creation,
Thro' Adam's cause.
When from my mither's womb I fell,
Thou might hae plung'd me deep in hell,
To gnash my gums, and weep and wail,
In burnin lakes,
Where damned devils roar and yell,
Chain'd to their stakes.
Yet I am here a chosen sample,
To show thy grace is great and ample;
I'm here a pillar o' Thy temple,
Strong as a rock,
A guide, a buckler, and example,
To a' Thy flock.
O Lord, Thou kens what zeal I bear,
When drinkers drink, an' swearers swear,
An' singing here, an' dancin there,
Wi' great and sma';
For I am keepit by Thy fear
Free frae them a'.
But yet, O Lord! confess I must,
At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust:
An' sometimes, too, in worldly trust,
Vile self gets in;
But Thou remembers we are dust,
Defil'd wi' sin.
O Lord! yestreen, Thou kens, wi' Meg
Thy pardon I sincerely beg;
O may't ne'er be a livin' plague
To my dishonour,
An' I'll ne'er lift a lawless leg
Again upon her.
Besides, I farther maun avow,
Wi' Leezie's lass, three times I trow -
But Lord, that Friday I was fou,
When I cam near her;
Or else, Thou kens, Thy servant true
Wad never steer her.
Maybe Thou lets this fleshly thorn
Buffet Thy servant e'en and morn,
Lest he owre proud and high shou'd turn,
That he's sae gifted:
If sae, Thy han' maun e'en be borne,
Until Thou lift it.
Lord, bless Thy chosen in this place,
For here Thou has a chosen race!
But God confound there stuborn face,
An' blast their name,
Wha brings Thy elders to disgrace
An' open shame.
Lord, mind Gaw'n Hamilton's deserts;
He drinks, an' swears, an' plays at cartes,
Yet has sae mony takin arts,
Wi' great an' sma',
Frae God's ain priest the people's hearts
He steals awa'.
And when we chasten'd him therefore,
Thou kens how he bred sic a splore,
And set the world in a roar
O' laughing at us;
Curse Thou his basket and his store,
Kail an' potatoes.
Lord, hear my earnest cry and pray'r,
Against that Presbyt'ry o' Ayr;
Thy strong right hand, Lord mak it bare
Upo' their heads;
Lord visit them, an' dinna spare,
For their misdeeds.
O Lord my God! that glib-tongu'd Aitken,
My vera heart an' flesh are quakin,
To think how we stood sweatin, shakin,
An' pish'd wi' dread,
While he, wi' hingin lip an' snakin,
Held up his head.
Lord, in Thy day o' vengeance try him,
Lord, visit them wha did employ him,
And pass not in Thy mercy by them,
Nor hear their pray'r,
But for Thy people's sake destroy them,
An' dinna spare.
But, Lord, remember me an' mine
Wi' mercies temporal and divine,
That I for grace an' gear may shine,
Excell'd by nane,
And a' the glory shall be Thine,
Amen, Amen!
Allan Cunningham's Analysis
Written in 1834
(Note: These analyses
from this book, published in 1834, are extremely interesting in
that they were written in the year or two before which places them
only about 36 year or so after the bard's premature death. This
means that many of Burns's contemporaries were still alive and
well. It is likely that the author knew some of them and spoke
to them.)
The "Holy Willie" of this sarcastic
but too daring poem, was one William Fisher, a farmer near Mauchline,
and leading Elder of the Reverend Mr. Auld's Session. He was a
great pretender to sanctity, austere of speech, and punctilious
about outward observances. Yet he was by no means rigid as far
as he regarded himself: he scrupled not to "get fou", when whiskey
(sic) flowed at the expense others: he was more particular, too,
in the examination of female transgressors than some of his brethren
thought seemly; and when he left Mauchline for an eldership in
a neigbouring parish he had a sore fall, for it is said that he
made free with the money of the poor. Burns prophetically intimates
Willie's leaning to the latter vice:-
"And sometimes, too, wi' worldly
trust vile self gets in"
His end was any thing but godly:
he drank more than was proper dusing one of his visits to Mauchline,
and was found dead in a ditch on the way to his own house.
Burns loved to give vent to his his
satiric propensities in prayers such as that uttered by "Holy Willie."
On one occasion a friend of his had aided in the summary punishment
- sanctioned by old custom - of a girl belonging to an innkeeper,
who had been too indulgent to one of the male customers. The law
was angry, and the aggressor fled to the woods, but returned to
his fathers house late on Saturday night, knowing that he was free
of the Sabbath. He met Burns on one of these occasions, and related
his story: the poet laughed - mused a little, and said, "Adam,
you may have need of some one to pray for you." - "I wish you would
do it Robert," said the other, "I know of no one so fit." Burns
immediately composed a prayer, of which stanzas are still remembered;-it
is explanation sufficient to say that "Geordie" and "Nanse" were
the girl's master and mistress, and chief instigators of the prosecution.
He commences by making his friend complain of "scrimpit stature,"
and of bodily inability to endure the hornings and houndings of
law: he then describes his provations and fears:-
"And now I'm derned in glens
and hallows,
And hunted, as was William Wallace,
By constables those blackguard fallows, And bailies baith;
THe Lord preserve us frae the gallows, That cursed death!"
He next demands vengeance on his
persecutors :-
"Auld, grim, black bearded Geordie's
sel'
O! shake him owre the mouth o' hell,
And let him hing, and roar and yell, Wi hideous din:
An' if he offers tae rebel. Just heave him in.
"When death comes in, wi' glimmering
blink,
And tips auld drunken Nanse the wink,
May Hornie gie her doup a clink, Ahint his yett,
And fill her up wi' brimstone drink, Bad reeking het!"
John Richmond of Mauchline says,
that when he was a clerk in Gavin Hamilton's office, Burns came
in one morning and said, "I have just been making a poem and if
you will write it, John, I'll repeat it." He accordingly, to Richmond's
surprise, repeated "Holy Willie's Prayer:" Hamilton came in, read
it, and ran laughing with it to Robert Aitken - and Aitken was
delighted. <top>
