Epigram on Rough Roads

DESCRIPTION: "I'm now arrived -- thanks to the gods! Thro' pathways rough and muddy, A certain sign that makin roads Is no this people's study... I'm not wi' Scripture cram'd, I'm sure the Bible says That heedless sinners shall be damn'd, Unless they mend their ways"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (BBC web site dates to 1786, without documentation)
KEYWORDS: humorous travel | roads
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 173, "We've now arrived, thanks be to God" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #629, p. 725, "Epigram on Rough Roads" (1 text)
Roud #25471
NOTES [41 words]: Although several online sources attribute this to Robert Burns without hesitation, and may date it to 1786, Kinsley files it under "Undated Poems and Dubia." As a result, I have put a question mark on the authorship and used a later, safer date. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC173A

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