Halloween (poem)

{{Short description|Early literary work of Halloween}}

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File:J. M. Wright - Edward Scriven - Robert Burns - Halloween.JPG's engraving of John Masey Wright's illustration to Robert Burns' Halloween]]

{{quote box|title=Halloween{{efn|Is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are abroad on their baneful midnight errands; particularly those aerial people, the fairies, are said on that night to hold a grand anniversary,.—R.B.}}|source=—Robert Burns|quote=

Upon that night, when fairies light

:On Cassilis Downans{{efn|Certain little, romantic, rocky, green hills, in the neighbourhood of the ancient seat of the Earls of Cassilis.—R.B.}} dance,

Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,

:On sprightly coursers prance;

Or for Colean the rout is ta'en,

:Beneath the moon's pale beams;

There, up the Cove,{{efn|A noted cavern near Colean house, called the Cove of Colean; which, as well as Cassilis Downans, is famed, in country story, for being a favorite haunt of fairies.—R.B.}} to stray an' rove,

:Amang the rocks and streams

:::::::To sport that night;

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"Halloween" is a poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785.{{cite book|author=Alexander Smith|title=Poems, Songs and Letters, being the complete works of Robert Burns. Edited from the best printed and manuscript authorities, with glossarial index and a biographical memoir by Alexander Smith. (The Globe edition.).|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tP40AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA44|year=1868|publisher=Macmillan & Company|pages=44–7}} First published in 1786, the poem is included in the Kilmarnock Edition. It is one of Burns' longer poems, with twenty-eight stanzas, and employs a mixture of Scots and English.Robert Burns, Alexander Smith [https://books.google.com/books?id=tP40AAAAMAAJ&dq=robert+burns+halloween&pg=PA44 Poems, songs, and letters: being the complete works of Robert Burns, edited from the best printed and manuscript authorities with glossarial index and a biographical memoir] Macmillan and co., 1868[http://www.bbc.co.uk/robertburns/works/halloween/ BBC - Robert Burns - Halloween] BBC