Whyles daez't wi' love, whyles daez't wi' drink, Wi' jads or masons; An' whyles, but ay owre late, I think Braw sober lessons. Of a' the thoughtless sons o' man, O' rhymin' clink, They ever think. The devil-haet, that I sud ban, Nae thought, nae view, nae scheme o' livin', But just the pouchie put the nieve in, An' while ought's there, Then, hiltie, skiltie, we gae scrievin', An' fash nae mair. Leeze me on rhyme! it's aye a treasure, At hame, a-fiel', at wark or leisure, The Muse, poor hizzie! Tho' rough an' raploch be her measure, She's seldom lazy. Haud tae the Muse, my dainty Davie: Tho' e'er sae puir, Na, even tho' limpin wi' the spavie Frae door tae dopr. THE LASS O BALLOCHMYLE. "Twas even-the dewy fields were green, All nature listening seemed the while, Except where green-wood echoes rang, Amang the braes o' Ballochmyle. With careless step I onward stray'd, A maiden fair I chanced to spy; Fair is the morn in flowery May, There all her charms she does compile ; Ev'n there her other works are foil'd O, had she been a country maid, Tho' shelter'd in the lowest shed Then pride might climb the slipp❜ry steep, To tend the flocks or till the soil, And every day have joys divine, TO MARY IN HEAVEN. THOU lingering star, with less'ning ray, Again thou usher'st in the day My Mary from my soul was torn. O Mary! dear departed shade! Where is thy place of blissful rest? Seest thou thy lover lowly laid? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast? That sacred hour can I forget, Can I forget the hallow'd grove, Where by the winding Ayr we met, Those records dear of transports past; Thy image at our last embrace; Ah! little thought we 'twas our last! Ayr gurgling kiss'd his pebbled shore, Where is thy blissful place of rest? Seest thou thy lover lowly laid? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast? LINES ON AN INTERVIEW WITH LORD DAER. THIS wot ye all whom it concerns, I Rhymer Robin, alias Burns, October twenty-third, A ne'er to be forgotten day, I've been at drucken writers' feasts, I've even join'd the honour'd jorum, When mighty Squireships of the quorum, Their hydra drouth did sloken. But wi' a Lord-stand out my shin, And sic a Lord-lang Scotch ells twa, But oh for Hogarth's magic pow'r! And how he star'd and stammer'd, I sidling shelter'd in a nook, I watch'd the symptoms o' the Great, The feint a pride, nae pride had he, Mair than an honest ploughman. |