Thou canst not learn, nor can I show, With Shenstone's art; Or pour, with Gray, the moving flow Yet all beneath th' unrivall'd rose Yet green the juicy hawthorn grows Then never murmur or repine; Wee Pope, the knurlin, till him rives Horatian fame; In thy sweet sang, Barbauld, survives But thee, Theocritus,5 wha matches? I pass by hunders, nameless wretches, In this braw age o' wit and lear, And, wi' the far-famed Grecian, share Yes! there is ane: a Scottish callan, - The teeth o' Time may gnaw Tantallan, Thou paints auld Nature to the nines, While nightly breezes sweep the vines, In gowany glens thy burnie strays, Where bonnie lasses bleach their claes; Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes, Wi' hawthorns grey, Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays Thy rural loves are Nature's sel'; That charm that can the strongest quell, 4 See page 154, note 4. 5 A native of Syracuse, and the father of bucolic poetry as a branch of Greek literature. He lived in the latter part of the third century before the Christian era. His bucolic idyls are still held by many to be the best ever written. - Maro is one of Virgil's names. 6 Allan Rainsay, author of the Gentle Shepherd. 7 Hallan is a partition wall in a cot. tage, or more properly a seat of turf outside. Tantallan is the name of a moun tain. TO A MOUSE.8 WEE, sleekit, cowerin', timorous beastie, Wi' bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin and chase thee, I'm truly sorry man's dominion Which mak's thee startle At me, thy poor earth-born companion, And fellow-mortal! I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! A daimen icker in a thrave9 'S a sma' request: I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave, Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin! An' bleak December's winds ensuin', Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, Thou thought to dwell, Till, crash! the cruel coulter past That wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble To thole the Winter's sleety dribble, But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain For promised joy. 8 A farm servant was driving the plough which Burns held, when a mouse ran before them. The man would have killed it, but was restrained by the poet.. Hence originated this gem of song. 9 Ancar of corn in twenty-four sheaves; that is, in a thrave. 1 But is here equivalent to without. The usage is not peculiar to Scotland. Shakespeare has it repeatedly. Still thou art blest, compared wi' me! An' forward, though I canna see, THE HUMBLE PETITION OF BRUAR WATER.2 TO THE NOBLE DUKE OF ATHOLE. The lightly-jumpin', glowerin' trouts, Last day I grat wi' spite and teen, He, kneeling, wad adored me. Here, foaming down the shelvy rocks, I am, although I say't mysel', Would then my noble master please 2 Bruar Falls, in Athole, are exceed. ingly picturesque and beautiful; but their effect is much impaired by the want of trees and shrubs.-BURNS. Delighted doubly then, my Lord, The sober laverock,3 warbling wild, The gowdspink, music's gayest child, The blackbird strong, the lintwhite clear, This, too, a covert shall ensure, To shield them from the storms; The shepherd here shall make his seat, And here, by sweet endearing stealth, The flowers shall vie in all their charms The hour of heaven to grace, Here haply too, at vernal dawn, Some musing bard may stray, And eye the smoking, dewy lawn, And misty mountain grey; Or, by the reaper's nightly beam, Mild-chequering through the trees, Rave to my darkly-dashing stream, Hoarse-swelling on the breeze. Let lofty firs, and ashes cool, My lowly banks o'erspread, And view, deep-bending in the pool, Their shadows' watery bed! Let fragrant birks in woodbines drest And, for the little songster's nest, So may old Scotia's darling hope, 3 Laverock is lark; gowdspink, goldfinch; lintwhite, linnet; mavis, thrush. So may through Albion's farthest ken, To social flowing glasses, The grace be-"Athole's honest men, And Athole's bonnie lasses!" 4 CASTLE-GORDON. STREAMS that glide in orient plains, Glowing here on golden sands, From tyranny's empurpled bands: Bent on slaughter, blood, and spoil: | Wildly here, without control, She plants the forest, pours the flood: 4 It seems that this poem had the desired effect. So we learn from Chambers: "Trees have been thickly planted along the chasm, and are now far advanced to maturity. Throughout this young forest a walk has been cut, and a number of fantastic little grottoes erected for the con. venience of those who visit the spot.”. Professor Walker, also, notes upon the poem as follows: "Burns passed two or three days with the Duke of Athole, and was highly delighted by the attention he received. By the Duke's advice he visit ed the Falls of Bruar; and in a few days I received a letter from Inverness, with the above verses inclosed." 5 Burns conceived the idea of these verses during a brief visit to Gordon Castle in 1784; wrote them down as he hur. ried south, and inclosed them to James Hay, the Duke's librarian. The Duchess guessed them to be written by Beattie, and, when told they were written by Burns, wished they had been in the Scot tish dialect. TO MISS CRUIKSHANKS, A VERY YOUNG LADY.6 (Written on the blank leaf of a book presented BEAUTEOUS rose-bud, young and gay, Nor even Sol too fiercely view Mayst thou long, sweet crimson gem, The loveliest form she e'er gave birth." POOR MAILIE'S ELEGY.8 LAMENT in rhyme, lament in prose, Past a' remead; The last sad cape-stane of his woes; It's no the loss o' warl's gear, He's lost a friend and neebor dear In Mailie dead. 6 The young lady who inspired these beautiful lines was then only twelve years old. 3 The principle of love, which is the great characteristic of Burns, often mani 7 Burns often intimated his friendships fests itself in the shape of humour. Ev. or attachments-in verse or prose, on the erywhere, in his sunny mood, a full buoy. blank leaf of a favorite book, and then ant flood of mirth runs through his mind: presented the volume to the object of his he rises to the high and stoops to the low, regard. He was mostly attached to ladies and is brother and playmate to all Nat whose voices were sweet and harmoni-ure. He has a bold and irresistible facous, or who excelled in music.-WALKER. ulty of caricature; this is drollery rather 8 The sheep, whose death occasioned than humour. A much tenderer sportful. this strain of laughing grief, or weeping ness dwells in him than this, and comes mirth, is described as "the author's only forth here and there in evanescent and pet yowe." beautiful touches; as in his Address to a THE AULD FARMER'S NEW-YEAR MORNING SALUTATION TO HIS AULD MARE MAGGIE, ON GIVING HER THE ACCUSTOMED RIPP OF CORN TO HANSEL IN THE NEW YEAR. A GUID New Year I wish thee, Maggie! Hae, there's a ripp to thy auld baggie: Tho' thou's howe-backit now an' knaggie, I've seen the day Thou could hae gaen like ony staggie Out-owre the lay. Tho' now thou's dowie, stiff, an' crazy, An' thy auld hide's as white's a daisy, I've seen thee dappl't, sleek, and glalzie, A bonny grey: He should been tight that daur't to raize Ance in a day. [thee Thou ance was i' the foremost rank, A filly buirdly, steeve, an' swank, An' set weel down a shapely shank As e'er tread yird; An' could hae flown out-owre a stank Like onie bird. It's now some nine-an'-twenty year Tho' it was sma', 'twas weel-won gear, When first I gaed to woo my Jenny, But hamely, tawie, quiet an' cannie, That day ye pranced wi muckle pride, When ye bure hame my bonnie bride: An' sweet an' gracefu' she did ride, Wi' maiden air! Kyle Stewart I could hae braggèd wide, For sic a pair. Tho' now ye dow but hoyte an' hoble, For heels an' win'! Mouse, or The Farmer's Auld Mare, or in Poor Mailie; which last may be reckoned his happiest effort in this kind.-CAR LYLE. An' ran them till they a' did wauble, Far, far behin'. When thou an' I were young an' skeigh, When thou was corn't an' I was mellow, But every tail thou pay't them hollow, The sma', droop-rumpl't, hunter cattle Thou was a noble fittie-lan',4 Hae turn'd sax rood beside our han', Thou never braindg't, an' fech't, an' fliskit, Till spritty knowes 5 would rair't and When frosts lay lang an' snaws were deep, I kenn'd my Maggie wad na sleep In cart or car thou never reestit; But just thy step a wee thing hastit, 4 The near horse of the hindmost pair at the plough. That is the post of honour in a plough-team. 5 Hillocks with tough-rooted plants in them.- Risket is a noise like the tearing of roots. 6 Never leaped, and reared, and started forward. |