ON HER RECOVERY. BUT rarely seen since Nature's birth, Yet still one Seraph 's left on earth, TO THE SAME. [About the end of May, 1796, the surgeon who attended Burns in his last illness, happened to call on him at the same time with Miss Jessy Lewars. In the course of conversation Mr. Brown mentioned that he had been to see a collection of wild beasts just arrived in Dumfries. By way of aiding his description, he took the advertisement (containing a list of the animals to be exhibited) from his pocket. As he was about to hand it to Miss Lewars, the Poet took it out of his hand, and with some red ink standing beside him, wrote on the back of the advertisement the following unes.] TALK not to me of savages From Afric's burning sun, No savage e'er could rend my heart, But Jessy's lovely hand in mine, Not even to view the heavenly choir LINES WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF A BANK NOTE. WAE worth thy power, thou curséd leaf, And for thy potence vainly wish'd, To crush the villain in the dust. For lack o' thee I leave this much-loved shore, Never, perhaps, to greet old Scotland more. KYLE. R. B LINES ON MISS J. SCOTT, OF AYR. LINES On being asked, why God had made Miss Davies so little, and WRITTEN ON A PANE OF GLASS IN THE INN AT MOFFAT. ASK why God made the gem so small, Because God meant mankind should set LINES Written under the picture of the celebrated Miss Burns. CEASE, ye prudes, your envious railing, True it is, she had one failing— Had a woman ever less. LINES Written and presented to Mrs. Kemble, on seeing her in the character of Yarico. KEMBLE, thou cur'st my unbelief At Yarico's sweet notes of grief LINES Written on a window at the King's Arms Tavern, Dumfries. YE men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering VERSES Written on a window of the inn at Carron. WE cam na here to view your warks But when we tirl'd' at your door, Your porter dought na3 hear us; TO DR. MAXWELL. On Miss Jessy Staig's recovery. MAXWELL, if merit here you crave, You save fair Jessy from the grave! An angel could not die. iGo.-2 Knocked.-3 Was unable to.-4 Gates.-5 Brother.- Serve EPIGRAM ON A HENPECKED COUNTRY SQUIRE. O DEATH! hadst thou but spared his life, E'en as he is, cauld in his graff,1 ANOTHER. ONE Queen Artemisia, as old stories tell, Would have eat her dead lord on a slender pretence, A TOAST [At a meeting of the Dumfries-shire Volunteers, held to commemorate the anniversary of Rodney's victory, April 12, 1782, Burns was called upon for a song, instead of which he delivered the following lines extempore.] INSTEAD of a song, boys, I'll give you a toast Here's the memory of those on the twelfth that we lost; 1 Grave.-2 Exchange.-3 Stont old woman. IMPROMPTU On Mrs. R's birthday, 4th Nov. 1793. OLD Winter with his frosty beard, Give me, and I've no more to say, That brilliant gift will so enrich me, Spring, summer, autumn, cannot match me." THE LOYAL NATIVES' VERSES.1 YE sons of sedition, give ear to my song, Let Syme, Burns, and Maxwell, pervade every throng, BURNS-EXTEMPORE. YE true "Loyal Natives," attend to my song, But where is your shield from the darts of contempt? 1 At this period of our Poet's life, when political animosity was made the ground of private quarrel, the above foolish verses were sent as an attack on Burns and his friends for their political opinions. They were written by some member of a club styling themselves the "Loyal Natives" of Dumfries, or rather by the united genius of that club, which was more distinguished for drunken loyalty, than either for respectability or poetical talent. The verses were handed over the table to Burns at a convivial meeting, and he instantly endorsed the subjoined reply.-Reliques, p. 108. |