Condemn'd to drag a hopeless chain To feel a fire in every vein, Love's veriest wretch, unseen, unknown, I know thou doom'st me to despair, The music of thy voice I heard, Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie.1 Tune-"Roy's Wife." Chorus-Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie ? Is this thy plighted, fond regard, 1 This appears to be an overture to the offended Mrs Riddell, or so Chambers supposes. A kind of lyric reply, in the lady's hand, was found among Burns's papers, THE TEAR-DROP Farewell! and ne'er such sorrows tear That fickle heart of thine, my Katie ! My Nanie's Awa.1 Tune-"There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame." Now in her green mantle blythe Nature arrays, The snawdrap and primrose our woodlands adorn, Thou lav'rock that springs frae the dews of the lawn, Come Autumn, sae pensive, in yellow and grey, The Tear-drop.2 WAE is my heart, and the tear's in my e'e; And the sweet voice o' Pity ne'er sounds in my ear. 1 Mrs MacLehose was one of Burns's Nanies or Nancies, the lines may or may not refer to her. 2 The lines might shew a presenti. ment of early death, dramatically put. Love thou hast pleasures, and deep hae I luv'd; Oh, if I were—where happy I hae been- Wha wad soon dry the tear-drop that clings to my e'e.1 For the sake o' Somebody.2 My heart is sair-I dare na tell, My heart is sair for Somebody; I could wake a winter night I could range the world around, Ye Powers that smile on virtuous love, O-hey! for Somebody! I wad do what wad I not? A Man's a Man for a' that. Tune-"For a' that. Is there for honest Poverty That hings his head, an' a' that; Johnson's reading. 2 "Somebody" remains anonymous. 1 "The tear frae his Philis's e'e," is 8 Sent to Thomson on Jan. 15, 1795, having then been composed for a fortnight. T A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT For a' that, an' a' that. Our toils obscure an' a' that, The rank is but the guinea's stamp, What though on hamely fare we dine, Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, For a' that, and a' that, Their tinsel show, an' a' that; Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord, Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that; His ribband, star, an' a' that: A prince can mak a belted knight, Their dignities an' a' that; The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth, Then let us pray that come it may, That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth, Shall bear the gree, an' a' that. For a' that, an' a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That Man to Man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that. b fellow. c blockhead. d try. ⚫ pre-eminence. Craigieburn Wood.1 SWEET fa's the eve on Craigieburn, I see the flowers and spreading trees, Fain, fain would I my griefs impart, If thou refuse to pity me, If thou shalt love another, When yon green leaves fade frae the tree, Versicles of 1795. The solemn League and Covenant.1 THE Solemn League and Covenant 8 Now brings a smile, now brings a tear; 1 A recast of an earlier picce by Burns. 2 Written in vol. xiii. of The Statistical Account of Scotland, s.v. Balmaghie. The writer of the pages on Balmaghie had remarked on the rude rhymes of a Covenanting epitaph. As a rule, Burns preferred Dundee to the Covenanters, who, if they wished to be "free" them selves, were equally anxious to deny freedom to everyone who disagreed with them. 3 Cunningham gives these two lines 8.8: "Cost Scotland blood, cost Scotland tears; But it sealed Freedom's sacred cause." |