Holy Willie's Prayer by Robert Burns
"Holy Willie's Prayer," composed by Robert Burns in 1785, is a satirical poem that critiques religious hypocrisy, specifically within the context of Calvinist beliefs. The poem features a character named Holy Willie, based on the historical figure William Fisher, a strict elder in the Mauchline parish known for his zealous and self-righteous behavior. In the poem, Willie offers a prayer that reveals his self-serving nature, asking for divine forgiveness for his own sins—particularly his sexual indiscretions—while exhibiting a cruel glee in the damnation of others. This portrayal sharply critiques the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, which asserts that only a select few are chosen for salvation, leaving the rest condemned regardless of their moral character.
Burns employs irony to show Willie as a hypocrite, highlighting the contrast between true piety and the façade maintained by those who wield religious authority for their own ends. The accompanying "Epistle to the Rev. John M'Math" further elaborates on Burns's views, suggesting that he values genuine spirituality over the superficiality of those who hide behind a veneer of holiness. Through this work, Burns invites readers to reflect on the nature of faith and the moral integrity of those who profess it. The poem remains a powerful commentary on the dangers of dogmatism and the human propensity for hypocrisy.
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Holy Willie's Prayer by Robert Burns
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1789 (collected in The Canongate Burns, 2001)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Holy Willie’s Prayer,” written in 1785, was printed in 1789 and reprinted in 1799. It was one of the poet’s favorite verses, and he sent a copy to his friend, the convivial preacher John M’Math, who had requested it, along with a dedicatory poem titled “Epistle to the Rev. John M’Math” (published in 1808). To M’Math he sent his “Argument” as background information:
Holy Willie was a rather oldish bachelor elder, in the parish of Mauchline, and much and justly famed for that polemical chattering which ends in tippling orthodoxy, and for that spiritualized bawdry which refines to liquorish devotion.
The real-life “Willie” whom Burns had in mind was William Fisher, a strict Presbyterian elder of the Mauchline church.
In his satire on religious fanaticism, Burns cleverly allows Willie to witness against himself. Willie’s prayer, addressed to the deity of Calvinist doctrine, is really a self-serving plea to be forgiven for his own sins of sexual promiscuity (with Meg). Willie’s God—more cruel than righteous—punishes sinners according to the doctrine of predestination of saints: Only a small number of “elect” souls, chosen before their births, will enter Heaven; the others, no matter their goodness, piety, or deeds, are condemned (predestined) to Hell. Willie exults in thoughts of revenge toward the miserable souls who are doomed to such eternal torment. The victims over whom he gloats are, from the reader’s point of view, far less deserving of hellfire than Willie, a hypocrite, lecher, and demon of wrath.
In the “Epistle to the Rev. John M’Math,” Burns defends his own simple creed as one superior to self-styled “holy” Willie’s: “God knows, I’m no the thing I should be,/ Nor am I even the thing I could be,/ But twenty times I rather would be/ An atheist clean/ Than under gospel colors hid be,/ Just for a screen.” His argument, he avers, is not against a benign doctrine of Christianity with its reach of forgiveness for sincerely repented sins, but against the hypocrites and scoundrels “even wi’ holy robes,/ But hellish spirit!”
Bibliography
Bentman, Raymond. Robert Burns. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
Carruthers, Gerard. Robert Burns. Tavistock, Devon, England: Northcote House, 2006.
Crawford, Thomas. Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1960.
Daiches, David. Robert Burns and His World. London: Thames & Hudson, 1971.
Ferguson, John DeLancey. Pride and Passion: Robert Burns, 1759-1796. 1939. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964.
Grimble, Ian. Robert Burns: An Illustrated Biography. New York: P. Bedrick Books, 1986.
Lindsay, John Maurice. The Burns Encyclopaedia. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.
McGuirk, Carol. Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.
McGuirk, Carol, ed. Critical Essays on Robert Burns. New York: G. K. Hall, 1998.
McIlvanney, Liam. Burns the Radical: Poetry and Politics in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland. East Linton, Scotland: Tuckwell, 2002.
Stewart, William. Robert Burns and the Common People. New York: Haskell House, 1971.