Robert Burns

In Address to the De'il by Robert Burns, the "Devil" that is being addressed is that of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Burns acknowledges it's powerful force, writing, "Whyles, ranging like a roaring lion/ For prey, a'holes an' corners tryin/ Whyles, on the strong-wing'd tempest flyin/ Tirlan the kirks/ Whyles, in the human bosom pryin/ Unseen though lurks". (99) In this stanza, the Devil is conveyed as a force that lies within all people, waiting for any chance to turn people down the wrong path. Burns' devil is a representation of the desire that leads people to suffer emotionally and physically. The imagery that Burns uses through out the poem is vital in addressing this idea of the Devil's physical toll on a person, writing "The cudgel in my nieve did shake/ Each bristl'd hair stood like a stake".  Burns also writes about the Devil's arrival in Eden, saying, "Lang syne in Eden's bonie yard/ When youthful lovers first were pair'd/ An' all the soul of love they shar'd...Then you, ye auld, snick-drawing dog! Ye cam to Paradise incog...An' gied the infant warld a shog/ 'Maist ruin'd a.'" (100) This seems to be Burns struggling to understand why the Devil would ruin paradise for mankind. Since that ill-fated day in the garden of Eden, evil and delusion have only given man "scabs an' botches...an' lows'd his ill-tongue" (100). Although Burns is bitter towards the Devil's actions, the end of the poem seems to make peace with evil and delusion. Burn writes Devil is likely to find him in some "luckless hour" of drunken thought, but "Faith! he'll turn a corner jinkan/ An' cheat you yet". Burns ultimately chooses faith over the Devil's "black pit", and bids good riddance to the Devil's will.