The loud demand, from year to year the same, Friends (for I cannot stint, as some have done, Too rigid in my view, that name to one; Though one, I grant it, in the generous breast Will stand advanced a step above the rest : Flowers by that name promiscuously we call, But one, the rose, the regent of them all) — Friends, not adopted with a school-boy's haste, But chosen with a nice-discerning taste, Well-born, well-disciplined, who, placed apart From vulgar minds, have honor much at heart, And, though the world may think the ingredients The love of virtue, and the fear of God! Such friends prevent what else would soon succeed, A temper rustic as the life we lead, And keep the polish of the manners clean, As theirs who bustle in the busiest scene. For solitude, however some may rave, Seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave, A sepulchre, in which the living lie, Where all good qualities grow sick and die. [odd, I praise the Frenchman,' his remark was shrewd How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, DIVINE COMMUNION A BALM. DAVID'S FAITH AND STAY. 1 Bruyère. Not knowing thee, we reap with bleeding hands [breast, Drives to their dens the obedient beasts of prey. RELIGION THE CONSTANT HANDMAID OF JOY AND THE HARMLESS PLEASURES OF RURAL LIFE. Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly pursued ; To sturdy culture, and with artful toil To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands ; To cherish virtue in an humble state, In color these, and those delight the smell, Or lay the landscape on the snowy sheet - THE POET'S AIM. Me poetry (or rather notes that aim Feebly and vainly at poetic fame) Employs, shut out from more important views, Fast by the banks of the slow-winding Ouse; Content if thus sequestered I may raise A monitor's, though not a poet's praise, And while I teach an art too little known, To close life wisely, may not waste my own. Pastorals for November. BURNS'S" COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT.” My loved, my honored, much respected friend! The lowly train in life's sequestered scene, ween. November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh; The short'ning winter day is near a close ; The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh, The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose; The toil-worn Cotter frae his labor goes, This night his weekly moil is at an end, Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes, Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend, And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend. At length his lonely cot appears in view, The expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher through, His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie's smile, The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Does a' his weary, carking cares beguile, An' makes him quite forget his labor and his toil. Belyve the elder bairns come drappin in, At service out amang the farmers roun'; Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin A cannie errand to a neebor town: Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e, Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown, Or deposit her sair-won penny fee, To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be. Wi' joy unfeigned, brothers and sisters meet, An' each for other's welfare kindly spiers: The social hours, swift-wing'd, unnoticed fleet; Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears ; The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years; Anticipation forward points the view; The mother, wi' her needle an' her shears, Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new ; The father mixes a' wi admonition due. Their master's an' their mistress's command An' mind your duty, duly, morn and night, But, hark! a rap comes gently to the door- To do some errands and convoy her hame. Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek, With heart-struck, anxious care, inquires his name, While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak; Weel pleased the mother hears it 's nae wild, worthless rake. Wi' kindly welcome, Jenny brings him ben: A strappan youth; he takes the mother's eye; Blythe Jenny sees the visit 's no ill ta'en: The father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye: The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy : But blate an' laithfu', scarce can weel behave : The mother, wi' a woman's wiles, can spy What makes the youth sae bashfu' an' sae grave, Weel pleased to think her bairn's respected like the lave. O happy love! where love like this is found! "T is when a youthful, loving, modest pair And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, Would, in the way his wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide, But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside. GLOSSARY. Sugh, sigh; pleugh, plough; craws, crows; moil, labor ; wee, little; toddlin, tottering; stacher, stagger; flichterin, fluttering; ingle, fire; blinkin, glimmering; carking, corroding; belyve, by and by; bairns, children; drapping, dropping; roun, round; ca, drive; tentie, careful; rin, run; cannie, dextrous; e'e, eye; braw, handsome; spiers, inquires; uncos, strange things; gars, makes; eydent, diligent; jauk, joke; gang, go; wha kens, who knows; hafflins, half, partly; ben, into the room; strappan. strapping; ta'en, taken; cracks, talks; kye, cows; blate, bashful; laithfu', sheepish; lave, rest; parritch, porridge; hawkie, cow; cood, cud; 'yont the hallant, beyond the partition wall; hained, saved; kebbuck, cheese; fell, evenly cut; towmond, twelvemonth; lint in the bell, flax in blossom; ha', hall; lyart, gray; haffets, temples; wales, selects; beets, adds fuel to; Dundee and Elgin, well-known psalm tunes. See also glossaries, pp. 186, 336. FLETCHER'S "SHEPHERD'S EVE.” Every one his loved flock; And let your dogs lie loose without, Lest the wolf come as a scout From the mountain, and, ere day, Bear a lamb or kid away; Or the crafty, thievish fox Break upon your simple flocks. Of our great God. Sweetest slumbers, Crabbe's "Parish Register." Previous consideration necessary: yet not too long delay. Imprudent marriage of old Kirk and his servant: his apprehensions. Comparison between an ancient and youthful partner to a young man. Prudence of Donald, the gardener. Parish wedding: the compelled bridegroom: day of marriage, how spent. Relation of the accomplishments of Phebe Dawson, a rustic beauty: her lover: his courtship: their marriage: misery of precipitation. The wealthy couple: reluctance in the husband, why? Unusually fair signatures in the register: the common kind. Seduction of Bridget Dawdle, by footman Daniel: her rustic lover: her return to him. An ancient couple : three comparisons on the occasion. More pleasant view of village matrimony: farmers celebrating the day of marriage: their wives. Reuben and Rachel an happy pair: an example of prudent delay. Reflections on their state who were not so prudent, and its improvement towards the termination of life: an old man so circumstanced. Attempt to seduce a village beauty: persuasion and reply the event. Nubere si quà voles quamvis properabitis ambo, Differ; habent parvæ commoda magna moræ. Ovid. Fast. lib. 3. MARRY DELIBERATELY; LOVE AND PRUDENCE. DISPOSED to wed, e'en while you hasten, stay, There's great advantage in a small delay; Thus Ovid sang, and much the wise approve This prudent maxim of the priest of love: If poor, delay shall for that want prepare, That, on the hasty, brings a world of care; If rich, delay shall brace the thoughtful mind, T endure the ills that even the happiest find: Delay shall knowledge yield, on either part, And show the value of the vanquished heart: The humors, passions, merits, failings, prove, And gently raise the veil that's worn by love; Love, that impatient guide!—too proud to think Of vulgar wants, of clothing, meat, and drink, Urges our amorous swains their joys to seize, And then at rags and hunger frightened flees : Yet thee too long let not thy fears detain; Till refrain not age, but if old, refrain. THE OLD MAN AND HIS YOUNG BRIDE; NATHAN AND HIS By no such rule would Gaffer Kirk be tied ; O! Nathan! Nathan! at thy years trepanned, Till every youth, whose banns at church were read, A sly old fish, too cunning for the hook; (A thought she knew, and thou couldst not send hence, [fire; Well as thou lovedst them, for ten thousand pence); away. THE YOUNG HUSBAND AND OLD WIFE. A STEADY WIND MAKES A SAFE VOYAGE. Thus with example sad our year began, A wanton vixen and a weary man; But had this tale in other guise been told,' Young let the lover be, the lady old, And that disparity of years shall prove No bane of peace, although some bar to love : "T is not the worst, our nuptial ties among, That joins the ancient bride and bridegroom young; Young wives, like changing winds, their power disBy shifting points and varying day by day; [play, Now zephyrs mild, now whirlwinds in their force, And then she gently, mildly, breathes her last; YOUNG DONALD AND OLD MRS. DOBSON. — LUCY, SUSAN, AND CATHARINE, FOILED. For this blithe Donald southward made his way, And left the lasses on the banks of Tay; Him to a neighboring garden fortune sent; Whom we beheld aspiringly content : Patient and mild he sought the dame to please, Who ruled the kitchen and who bore the keys; Fair Lucy first, the laundry's grace and pride, With smiles and gracious looks, her fortune tried ; But all in vain she praised his pawky eyne,' Where never fondness was for Lucy seen; Him the mild Susan, boast of dairies, loved, And found him civil, cautious, and unmoved; From many a fragrant simple Catharine's skill Drew oil, drew essence from the boiling still; But not her warmth, nor all her winning ways, From his cool phlegm could Donald's spirit raise; Of beauty heedless, with the merry mute, To Mrs. Dobson he preferred his suit; There proved his service, there addressed his vows, And saw her mistress, friend, protectress, spouse. A butler now, he thanks his powerful bride, And, like her keys, keeps constant at her side. THE COMPELLED WEDDING; MISERY FROM SIN. Next at cur altar stood a luckless pair, Brought by strong passions and a warrant there; By long rent cloak, hung loosely, strove the bride From every eye what all perceived to hide ; While the boy-bridegroom, shuffling in his pace, Now hid a while and then exposed his face; As shame alternately with anger strove The brain, confused with muddy ale, to move; In haste and stammering he performed his part, And looked the rage that rankled in his heart (So will each lover inly curse his fate, Too soon made happy, and made wise too late); I saw his features take a savage gloom, And deeply threaten for the days to come; Low spake the lass, and lisped and minced the while; Looked on the lad, and faintly tried to smile ; With softened speech and humbled tone she strove To stir the embers of departed love; While he, a tyrant, frowning walked before, Felt the poor purse, and sought the public door, She sadly following in submission went, And saw the final shilling foully spent ; THE VILLAGE BELLE, PHEBE DAWSON. HER CHARMS, VIRTUES, AND TRIUMPHS. Two summers since, I saw at Lammas fair But yet on Sunday eve, in freedom's hour, HER ACCEPTED LOVER, THE TAILOR. At length, the youth ordained to move her breast Before the swains with bolder spirit pressed; With looks less timid made his passion known, And pleased by manners most unlike her own; Loud though in love, and confident though young; Fierce in his air, and voluble of tongue; By trade a tailor, though, in scorn of trade, He served the squire, and brushed the coat he made; Yet now, would Phebe her consent afford, Her slave alone, again he'd mount the board ; With her should years of growing love be spent, And growing wealth :- —she sighed, and looked con sent. THE LOVERS' STROLL.-TEMPTATION YIELDED TO. Now, through the lane, up hill, and 'cross the Seen but by few and blushing to be seen- [green, Dejected, thoughtful, anxious, and afraid, Led by the lover, walked the silent maid: Slow through the meadows roved they, many a mile, Toyed by each bank and trifled at each stile; Where, as he painted every blissful view, And highly colored what he strongly drew, The pensive damsel, prone to tender fears, Dimmed the false prospect with prophetic tears: Thus passed the allotted hours, till, lingering late, The lover loitered at the master's gate; There he pronounced adieu! and yet would stay, Till chidden, soothed, entreated, forced away; |