Linda Fabiani, Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, chooses today's Burns poem. She says: "I love everything about his poetry, his writing. The way he collected traditional song is important to me, for what a heritage he has maintained for us." Of this poem, she says it "touches all the bases". It's about autumn coming in and the brutality of man. It's also a love story: Margaret Thomson, whom the poet first fell in love with as a schoolboy, was described by Burns as "a charming Fillette, who lived next door to the school, over-set my trigonometry, and set me off in a Tangent from the sphere of my studies" - Lesley Duncan

Thus ev'ry kind their pleasure find,
The savage and the tender;
Some social join, and leagues combine;
Some solitary wander:
Avaunt, away! the cruel sway,
Tyrannic man's dominion;
The Sportsman's joy, the murd'ring cry,
The flutt'ring, gory pinion!

But Peggy dear, the ev'ning's clear,
Thick flies the skimming Swallow;
The sky is blue, the fields in view,
All fading-green and yellow:
Come let us stray our gladsome way,
And view the charms o' Nature;
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn,
And ilka happy creature.

We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk,
While the silent moon shines clearly;
I'll clasp thy waist, and fondly prest,
Swear how I lo'e thee dearly:
Not vernal show'rs to budding flow'rs,
Nor Autumn to the farmer,
So dear can be, as thou to me,
My fair, my lovely Charmer!