 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2025) |
"Epitaph for James Smith" is a satirical Scots epitaph written by poet Robert Burns in 1785, and was included in his first publication, the Kilmarnock volume :
- LAMENT him, Mauchline husbands a’,
- He aften did assist ye;
- For had ye staid hale weeks awa,
- Your wives they ne’er had miss’d ye.
- Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye press,
- To school in bands thegither,
- O tread ye lightly on his grass,—
- Perhaps he was your father! [1]
