More about this epitaph
First published 1808,this section of song appeared posthumously in Edinburgh Magazine amidst a longer version which appeared not to be entirely of Burns - the further stanzas exist in quatrain patterns uncharacteristic of the Bard.
Bonnie Peg as it is here is accepted as from Burns' own holograph, but calls into attention the debate regarding authorship after his death, of 'lost poems', fragments, and poems of dubious provenance, though much in Burns' style.
The Latin inscription cætera desunt closing this poem translates as 'the remainder is missing'.
Lisa Harrison