Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

ON WILLIE NICOL'S MARE

How royal George, the Lord leuk o'er him!
Was managing St Stephens' quorum;
If sleekit Chatham Will was livin,

b

е

Or glaikit Charlie got his nieve in;
How daddie Burke the plea was cookin,
If Warren Hastings' neck was yeukin ;
How cesses, stents,d and fees were rax'd,
Or if bare a yet were tax'd;
The news o' princes, dukes, and earls,
Pimps, sharpers, bawds, and opera-girls;
If that daft buckie, Geordie Wales,
Was threshing still at hizzies' tails ;
Or if he was grown oughtlins douser,
And no a perfect kintra cooser:
A' this and mair I never heard of;
And, but for you, I might despair'd of.
So, gratefu', back your news I send you,
And pray a' gude things may attend you.
ELLISLAND, Monday Morning, 1790.

Elegy on Willie Nicol's Mare.1

PEG NICHOLSON was a good bay mare,
As ever trod on airn;

But now she's floating down the Nith,
And past the mouth o' Cairn.

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare,
An' rode thro' thick and thin;
But now she's floating down the Nith,
And wanting even the skin.

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare,
And ance she bore a priest;

But now she's floating down the Nith,
For Solway fish a feast.

[blocks in formation]

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare,
An' the priest he rode her sair ;

And much oppress'd, and bruis'd she was,
As priest-rid cattle are,-&c. &c.

The Gowden Locks of Anna.1

YESTREEN I had a pint o' wine,
A place where body saw na;
Yestreen lay on this breast o' mine
The gowden locks of Anna.

The hungry Jew in wilderness,
Rejoicing o'er his manna,
Was naething to my hinny bliss
Upon the lips of Anna.

Ye monarchs, take the East and West
Frae Indus to Savannah ;
Gie me, within my straining grasp,
The melting form of Anna:

There I'll despise Imperial charms,
An Empress or Sultana,
While dying raptures in her arms
I give and take wi' Anna!

Awa, thou flaunting God of Day!
Awa, thou pale Diana!

Ilk Star, gae hide thy twinkling ray,
When I'm to meet my Anna!

Come, in thy raven plumage, Night,
(Sun, Moon, and Stars, withdrawn a';)

1 Mr Scott Douglas regards it as an undisputed fact that Anna was Anne Park, a niece of Mrs Hyslop, landlady of the Globe Tavern in Dumfries. Her illegitimate child by Burns was born

March 31st, 1791. Mrs Burns, so unmanfully slighted in the Postscript, brought up the child with one of her

own.

I MURDER HATE

And bring an angel-pen to write
My transports with my Anna!

POSTSCRIPT.

The Kirk an' State may join an' tell,
To do sic things I maunna:
The Kirk an' State may gae to hell,
And I'll gae to my Anna.

She is the sunshine o' my e'e,
To live but her I canna;
Had I on earth but wishes three,
The first should be my Anna.

Song.-I Murder Hate.1

I MURDER hate by flood or field,
Tho' glory's name may screen us;
In wars at home I'll spend my blood-
Life-giving wars of Venus.

The deities that I adore

Are social Peace and Plenty;
I'm better pleas'd to make one more,
Than be the death of twenty.

I would not die like Socrates,
For all the fuss of Plato;
Nor would I with Leonidas,

Nor yet would I with Cato:
The zealots of the Church and State
Shall ne'er my mortal foes be;
But let me have bold Zimri's fate,
Within the arms of Cozbi ! 2

1 A production of the same pothouse.

2 Vide Numbers, Chap. xxv. verses 8-15.-R. B.

[ocr errors]

Gudewife, Count the Lawin.1

GANE is the day, and mirk's the night,
But we'll ne'er stray for faut o' light;
Gude ale and brandy's stars and moon,
And blude-red wine's the risin sun.

Chorus.-Then gudewife, count the lawin,"
The lawin, the lawin,

Then gudewife, count the lawin,
And bring a coggied mair.

There's wealth and ease for gentlemen,
And simple folk maun fecht and fen';
But here we're a' in ae accord,
For ilka man that's drunk's a lord.
Then gudewife, &c.

My coggie is a haly pool

That heals the wounds o' care and dool;

And Pleasure is a wanton trout,

[blocks in formation]

At close of the contest for representing the Dumfries
Burghs, 1790.2

Addressed to R. GRAHAM, Esq. of Fintry.

FINTRY, my stay in worldly strife,

Friend o' my muse, friend o' my life,
Are ye as idle's I am?

black.

a dark.
⚫ reckoning.
1 Written, like the last, on a window-
pane in the same "howff."

2 Burns's candidate was unsuccessful.
The ballad was printed in the Edin-

• make shift.

d cup. burgh Magazine in 1811, and first included in Cunningham's edition, 1834. Verses 2 to 7 were first given from MS. by Scott Douglas.

a jerk.

ELECTION BALLAD

Come then, wi' uncouth kintra fleg,a

O'er Pegasus I'll fling my leg,

And ye shall see me try him.

But where shall I go rin a ride,
That I may splatter nane beside ?
I wad na be uncivil:

In manhood's various paths and ways
There's aye some doytin body strays,
And I ride like the devil.

Thus I break aff wi' a' my birr,c

And down yon dark, deep alley spur,
Where Theologics daunderd:

Alas! curst wi' eternal fogs,

And damn'd in everlasting bogs,

As sure's the creed I'll blunder!

I'll stain a band, or jaupe a gown,
Or rin my reckless, guilty crown
Against the haly door:
Sair do I rue my luckless fate,
When, as the Muse an' Deil wad hae't,
I rade that road before.

Suppose I take a spurt, and mix
Amang the wilds o' Politics-

Elector and elected,

Where dogs at Court (sad sons of bitches !)
Septennially a madness touches,

Till all the land's infected.

All hail! Drumlanrig's haughty Grace,1

Discarded remnant of a race

Once godlike-great in story;2

Thy forbears' virtues all contrasted,

The very name of Douglas blasted,

Thine that inverted glory!

b stumbling. • vigour. d saunter. • splash.

"How shall I sing Drumlanrig's

grace}"

' forefathers. 2 "Once great in martial story."

« IndietroContinua »