Robert Burns

He felt scant need     Of church or creed,     He took small share     In saintly prayer,     His eyes found food for his love;     He could pity poor devils condemned to hell,     But sadly neglected endeavours to dwell     With the angels in luck above:     To save one's precious peculiar soul     He never could understand is the whole     Of a mortal's business in life,     While all about him his human kin     With loving and hating and virtue and sin     Reel overmatched in the strife.     The heavens for the heavens,     and the earth for the earth!     I am a Man, I'll be true to my birth,     Man in my joys, in my pains.     So fearless, stalwart, erect and free,     He gave to his fellows right royally     His strength, his heart, his brains;     For proud and fiery and swift and bold     Wine of life from heart of gold,     The blood of his heathen manhood rolled     Full-billowed through his veins.