"A title, Dempster merits it; A garter gie to Willie Pitt; Gie wealth to some be-ledger'd cit, In cent. per cent. But gie me real, sterling wit, And I'm content. "While ye are pleased to keep me hale I'll sit down o'er my scanty meal, Be't water-brose, or muslin-kail, Wi' cheerful face, As lang's the muses dinna fail To say the grace." An anxious e'e I never throws Behint my lug, or by my nose; I jouk beneath misfortune's blows As weel's I may; Sworn foe to sorrow, care, and prose, I rhyme away. O ye douce folk, that live by rule, Grave, tideless-blooded, calm and cool, Compared wi' you-O fool! fool! fool! How much unlike! Your hearts are just a standing pool, Your lives, a dyke! Hae hair-brain'd, sentimental traces In your unletter'd, nameless faces! In arioso trills and graces Ye never stray, But, gravissimo, solemn basses Ye hum away. Ye are sae grave, nae doubt ye're wise; Nae ferly though ye do despise The hairum-scarum, ram-stam boys, The rattlin squad: I see you upward cast your eyes -Ye ken the road. Whilst I-but I shall haud me thereWi' you I'll scarce gang onywhereThen, Jamie, I shall say nae mair, But quat my sang, Content wi' you to mak a pair, Whare'er I gang. My bardship here, at your levee, Is sure an uncouth sight to see, Sae fine this day. II. I see ye're complimented thrang, By monie a lord and lady; "God save the king!"'s a cuckoo sang That's unco easy said aye; The poets, too, a venal gang, Wi' rhymes weel turn'd and ready, Wad gar you trow ye ne'er do wrang, But aye unerring steady, On sic a day. III. For me, before a monarch's face, Your kingship to bespatter; IV. 'Tis very true, my sovereign king, My skill may weel be doubted: But facts are chiels that winna ding, An' downa be disputed: Your royal nest, beneath your wing, V. Far be❜t frae me that I aspire To chaps wha in a barn or byre Yet aft a ragged cowte's been known For monie a day. For you, right reverend O*******, Nane sets the lawn-sleeve sweeter, Although a riband at your lug Wad been a dress completer: As ye disown yon paughty dog That bears the keys of Peter, Then, swith! an' get a wife to hug, Or, trouth! ye'll stain the mitre Some luckless day. * King Henry V. + Sir John Falstaff: vide Shakspeare. Ye, lastly, bonnie blossoms a', Ye royal lasses dainty, Heaven make you guid as weel as braw, XV. God bless you a'! consider now, Ye're unco muckle dautet ; An' I hae seen their coggie fou, That yet hae tarrow't at it; But or the day was done, I trow, The laggen they hae clautet Fu' clean that day. THE VISION. DUAN FIRST. THE sun had closed the winter day, The curlers quat their roaring play, An' hunger'd maukin ta'en her way To kail-yards green, While faithless snaws ilk step betray Whare she has been. The thresher's weary flingin-tree, The lee-lang day had tired me; And when the day had closed his e'e, Far i' the west, Ben i' the spence, right pensivelie, I gaed to rest. There, lanely, by the ingle cheek, I sat and eyed the spewing reek, An' heard the restless rattons squeak * Alluding to the newspaper account of a certain royal sailor's amour. + Duan, a term of Ossian's for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his Cath-Loda, vol. ii. of M'Pherson's translation. While here, half mad, half fed, half sarkit, Is a' th' amount. Here, Doon pour'd down his far-fetch'd floods; There, well-fed Irwine stately thuds: Auld hermit Ayr staw through his woods, And many a lesser torrent scuds, With seeming roar. Low, in a sandy valley spread, She boasts a race, To every nobler virtue bred, And polish'd grace. By stately tower or palace fair, Some seem'd to muse, some seem'd to dare, My heart did glowing transport feel, To see a race heroic wheel, And brandish round the deep-dyed steel While back-recoiling seem'd to reel Their stubborn foes. The Wallaces. + William Wallace. + Adam Wallace, of Richardton, cousin immortal preserver of Scottish independence. to the § Wallace, Laird of Craigie, who was second in command, under Douglas Earl of Ormond, at the famous battle on the banks of Sark, fought anno 1448. That glorious victory was principally owing to the judicious conduct, and intrepid valour of the gallant Laird of Craigie, who died of his wounds after the action. Coilus, King of the Picts, from whom the district of Kyle is said to take its name, lies buried, as tradition says, near the family-seat of the Montgomeries of Coil'sfield, where his burial-place is still shown. Barskimming the seat of the Lord Justice Clerk. **Catrine, the seat of the late Doctor and present Professor Stewart. |