EPISTLE TO MAJOR LOGAN
May still your life from day to day,
Nae "lente largo" in the play,
But "allegretto forte" gay,
A sweeping, kindling, bauld strathspey-
Encore! Bravo!
A blessing on the cheery gang
Wha dearly like a jig or sang,
An' never think o' right an' wrang
By square an' rule,
But, as the clegs o' feeling stang,
Are wise or fool.
My hand-waled curse keep hard in chase
The harpy, hoodock, purse-proud race,
Wha count on poortith as disgrace;
Their tuneless hearts,
May fireside discords jar a base
To a' their parts!
But come, your hand, my careless brither,
I' th' ither warl', if there's anither,
An' that there is, I've little switherd
We, cheek for chow, shall jog thegither,
I'se ne'er bide better.
We've faults and failings-granted clearly,
We're frail backsliding mortals merely,
Eve's bonie squad, priests wyte' them sheerly
For our grand fa';
But still, but still, I like them dearly-
God bless them a'!
Ochon for poor Castalian drinkers,
When they fa' foul o' earthly jinkers !
EPISTLE TO MAJOR LOGAN
The witching, curs'd, delicious blinkers
Hae put me hyte,a
And gart me weet my waukrife winkers,
But by yon moon !-and that's high swearin—
An' every star within my hearin!
An' by her een wha was a dear ane!
I'll ne'er forget;
I hope to gie the jads a clearin
In fair play yet.
My loss I mourn, but not repent it;
I'll seek my pursie whare I tinta it;
Ance to the Indies I were wonted,
Some cantrip hour
By some sweet elf I'll yet be dinted;
Then vive l'amour!
Faites mes baissemains respectueuses,
To sentimental sister Susie,
And honest Lucky; no to roose' you,
Ye may be proud,
That sic a couple fate allows ye,
To grace your blood.
Nae mair at present can I measure,
An' trowth my rhymin ware's nae treasure;
But when in Ayr, some half-hour's leisure,
Be't light, be't dark,
Sir Bard will do himself the pleasure
To call at Park.
Fragment on Sensibility.1
RUSTICITY'S ungainly form
May cloud the highest mind;
But when the heart is nobly warm,
The good excuse will find.
Propriety's cold, cautious rules
Warm fervour may o'erlook:
But spare poor sensibility
Th'ungentle, harsh rebuke.
A Winter Night.2
"Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm!
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these?"-SHAKESPEARE.
WHEN biting Boreas, fell and dour,"
Sharp shivers thro' the leafless bow'r;
When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r,b
Far south the lift,
Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,
Or whirling drift:
Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,
Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,
While burns, wi' snawy wreaths up-choked,
Wild-eddying swirl;
Or, thro' the mining outlet bocked,d
Down headlong hurl:
List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle,
I thought me on the ourie cattle,
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
O' winter war,
And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattled
Beneath a scar.e
Ilk happing' bird,-wee, helpless thing!
That, in the merry months o' spring,
Delighted me to hear thee sing,
What comes o' thee?
Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering" wing,
An' close thy e'e?
Ev'n you, on murdering errands toil'd,
Lone from your savage homes exil'd,
The blood-stain'd roost, and sheep-cote spoil'd
My heart forgets,
While pityless the tempest wild
Sore on you beats!
Now Phoebe in her midnight reign,
Dark-muffl'd, view'd the dreary plain;
Still crowding thoughts, a pensive train,
Rose in my soul,
When on my ear this plaintive strain,
Slow, solemn, stole-
"Blow, blow, ye winds, with heavier gust!
And freeze, thou bitter-biting frost!
Descend, ye chilly, smothering snows!
Not all your rage, as now united, shows
More hard unkindness unrelenting,
Vengeful malice, unrepenting,
Than heaven-illumin'd Man on brother Man bestows!
"See stern Oppression's iron grip,
Or mad Ambition's gory hand,
Sending, like blood-hounds from the slip,
Woe, Want, and Murder o'er a land!
Ev'n in the peaceful rural vale,
Truth, weeping, tells the mournful tale,
How pamper'd Luxury, Flatt'ry by her side,
The parasite empoisoning her ear,
With all the servile wretches in the rear, Looks o'er proud Property, extended wide; And eyes the simple, rustic hind,
Whose toil upholds the glitt'ring showA creature of another kind,
Some coarser substance, unrefin'd
Plac'd for her lordly use, thus far, thus vile, below!
"Where, where is Love's fond, tender throe,
With lordly Honour's lofty brow,
The pow'rs you proudly own?
Is there, beneath Love's noble name,
Can harbour dark, the selfish aim,
To bless himself alone!
Mark maiden-innocence a prey
To love-pretending snares:
This boasted Honour turns away,
Shunning soft Pity's rising sway,
Regardless of the tears and unavailing pray'rs!
Perhaps this hour, in Misery's squalid nest,
She strains your infant to her joyless breast,
And with a mother's fears shrinks at the rocking blast!
"Oh ye! who, sunk in beds of down,
Feel not a want but what yourselves create,
Think, for a moment, on his wretched fate,
Whom friends and fortune quite disown!
Ill-satisfy'd keen nature's clamorous call,
Stretch'd on his straw, he lays himself to sleep;
While through the ragged roof and chinky wall,
Chill, o'er his slumbers, piles the drifty heap'
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