How do you this blae eastlin wind, But, hark ye, friend! I charge you strictly, I pray and ponder butt the house; My shins, my lane, I there sit roastin, To cast my e'en up like a pyet, My heart-warm love to guid auld Glen, The ace an' wale of honest men: When bending down wi' auld grey hairs Beneath the load of years and cares, May He who made him still support him, An' views beyond the grave comfort him; His worthy fam'ly far and near, God bless them a' wi' grace and gear! My auld schoolfellow, preacher Willie, The manly tar, my mason-billie, And Auchenbay, I wish him joy, May he be dad, and Meg the mither, An' Lord, remember singing Sannock, An' her kind stars hae airted till her A guid chiel wi' a pickle siller. My kindest, best respects, I sen' it, Tell them, frae me, wi' chiels be cautious, For, faith, they'll aiblins fin' them fashious; But to grant a maidenhead's the devil. May guardian angels tak a spell, An' steer you seven miles south o' hell: Now fare ye weel, an' joy be wi' you: For my sake, this I beg it o' you, Assist poor Simson a' ye can, Ye'll fin' him just an honest man; ROB THE Ranter. A NEW PSALM FOR THE CHAPEL OF KILMARNOCK On the Thanksgiving-Day for His Majesty's Recovery. O SING a new song to the Lord, A joyful noise, even for the king The sons of Belial in the land They set their heads together, I say, Thou madest strong two chosen ones And him, among the Princes, chief In our Jerusalem, The judge that's mighty in thy law, Yet they, even they, with all their strength, Even as two howling, ravenous wolves To dogs do turn their tail. Th' ungodly o'er the just prevail'd, And now thou hast restored our State, Pity our Kirk also; For she by tribulations Is now brought very low. Consume that high-place, Patronage, From off thy holy hill; And in thy fury burn the book— Now hear our prayer, accept our song, SKETCH IN VERSE Inscribed to the Right Hon. C. J. Fox. How Wisdom and Folly meet, mix, and unite, I sing: If these mortals, the critics, should bustle, I care not, not I-let the critics go whistle. But now for a Patron whose name and whose glory, At once may illustrate and honour my story. Thou first of our orators, first of our wits; Yet whose parts and acquirements seem just lucky hits; No man with the half of 'em e'er could go right; A sorry, poor, misbegot son of the Muses, For using thy name, offers fifty excuses. 1 Dr. William M'Gill of Ayr, whose "Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Chirst" led to a charge of heresy against him. Burns took up his cause in "The Kirk of Scotland's Alarm (p. 393).-Lang. HC VI W Good L-d, what is Man! for as simple he looks, Do but try to develop his hooks and his crooks; On his one ruling passion Sir Pope hugely labours, That, like th' old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbours: Mankind are his show-box-a friend, would you know him? One trifling particular, Truth, should have miss'd him; Mankind is a science defies definitions. Some sort all our qualities each to its tribe, And think human nature they truly describe; Have you found this, or t'other? There's more in the wind; As by one drunken fellow his comrades you'll find. But such is the flaw, or the depth of the plan, In the make of that wonderful creature called Man, But truce with abstraction, and truce with a Muse Whose rhymes you'll perhaps, Sir, ne'er deign to peruse: Will you leave your justings, your jars, and your quarrels, Contending with Billy for proud-nodding laurels? My much-honour'd Patron, believe your poor poet, Your courage, much more than your prudence, you show it: In vain with Squire Billy for laurels you struggle; He'll have them by fair trade, if not, he will smuggle: Not cabinets even of kings would conceal 'em, He'd up the back stairs, and by G- he would steal 'em, Then feats like Squire Billy's you ne'er can achieve 'em; It is not, out-do him-the task is, out-thieve him! |