Halloween (poem)

Upon that night, when fairies light On Cassilis Downans[b] dance, Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze, On sprightly coursers prance; Or for Colean the rout is ta'en, Beneath the moon's pale beams; There, up the Cove,[c] to stray an' rove, Amang the rocks and streams To sport that night; "Halloween" is a poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785.

It is one of Burns' longer poems, with twenty-eight stanzas, and employs a mixture of Scots and English.

[2][3] The poet John Mayne from Dumfries, "a comparatively obscure follower of the Scottish Muses," wrote a poem about Halloween in 1780.

[4] That the Ayrshire poet Burns actually saw and was influenced by Mayne's composition is apparent, as he appears to communicate with Mayne's work, and also echoes some of his imagery.

[4][6] According to Burns, Halloween is "thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands".