The Death and Dying Words of Poor Maillie
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"The Death and Dying Words of Poor Maillie" is a poem by Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland. The poem is written in Scots and is part of Burns's Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, published in 1786.1
The poem is a satirical elegy that personifies a sheep, Maillie, and recounts her dying words and the pronouncements of various animals and figures, including the Devil, about her fate. It uses Maillie's death to comment on themes of religious hypocrisy and the treatment of the poor and vulnerable in society. The poem is noted for its fresh style and sincerity of feeling, characteristic of emergent 17th-century poetical schools.12
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