How cruel are the parents
    Who riches only prize,
And to the wealthy booby
    Poor woman sacrifice !
Meanwhile the hapless daughter
    Has but a choice of strife :
To shun a tyrant father's hate,
    Become a wretched wife !

The rav'ning hawk pursuing,
    The trembling dove thus flies :
To shun impending ruin
    A while her pinions tries;
'Till of escape despairing,
    No shelter or retreat,
She trusts the ruthless falconer,
    And drops beneath his feet.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes
Confirmed with The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Cambridge edition, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1897, page 281.

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "How cruel are the parents" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827), "Helpless woman", WoO. 155 (26 Walisische Lieder) no. 13 (1809-10) [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Ó, rodičové krutí"
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Comme les parents sont cruels", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Georg Pertz) , "Kalt ist der Eltern Busen"

Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2006-01-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 74