With deep-struck reverential awe* This all its source and end to draw, Brydone's brave wardt I well could spy, Where many a Patriot-name on high, DUAN SECOND. With musing-deep, astonish'd stare, When, with an elder sister's air, All hail! my own inspir'd Bard! "Know the great Genius of this land As arts or arms they understand, Their labours ply. "They Scotia's race among them share; Some fire the Soldier on to dare; Some rouse the Patriot up to bare Corruption's heart; Some teach the Bard, a darling care, The tuneful art. * Catrine, the seat of the late doctor, and present professor Stewart. † Colonel Fullarton. "Mong swelling floods of reeking gore, They ardent, kindling spirits pour; Or, mid the venal senate roar, They, sightless, stand, To mend the honest Patriot-lore, And grace the land. "And when the bard, or hoary Sage, Charm or instruct the future age, They bind the wild poetic rage In energy, Or point the inconclusive page "Hence Fullarton, the brave and young; Or tore, with noble ardour stung, "To lower orders are assign'd All choose, as various they're inclin'd, "When yellow waves the heavy grain, The threat'ning storm some strongly rein, Some teach to meliorate the plain With tillage-skill; And some instruct the shepherd train "Some hint the lover's harmless wile; And make his cottage-scenes beguile "Some, bounded to a district-space, Of rustic Bard; And careful note each op'ning grace, "Of these am I-Coila my name; And this district as mine I claim, 1 Where once the Campbells, chiefs of fame, I mark'd thy embryo tuneful flame, "With future hope, I oft would gaze, Fond, on thy little early ways, Thy rudely caroll'd, chiming phrase, Fir'd at the simple artless lays Öf other times. "I saw thee seek the sounding shore, I saw grim Nature's visage hoar, Struck thy young eye. "Or when the deep green-mantled earth I saw thee eye the gen'ral mirth With boundless love. "When ripen'd fields, and azure skies, Call'd forth the reapers' rustling noise, I saw thee leave their ev'ning joys, And lonely stalk, To vent thy bosom's swelling rise "When youthful love, warm-blushing strong Keen-shivering shot thy nerves along, Those accents, grateful to thy tongue, Th' adored Name, I taught thee how to pour in song, "I saw thy pulses maddening play, Wild send thee pleasure's devious way, Misled by fancy's meteor ray, By passion driven; But yet the light that led astray Was light from heaven. "I taught thy manners-painting strains, The loves, the ways of simple swains, Till now, o'er all my wide domains Thy fame extends: And some, the pride of Coila's plains, "Thou canst not learn, nor can I show, To paint with Thompson's landscape glow, Or wake the bosom-melting throe, With Shenstone's art, Or pour with Gray, the moving flow "Yet all beneath the unrivalled rose, Yet green the juicy hawthorn grows, "Then never murmur nor repine; Can give a bliss o'ermatching thine, "To give my counsels all in one, Thy tuneful flame still careful fan; Preserve the Dignity of Man, With soul erect; And trust, the Universal Plan Will all protect. "And wear thou this !"—she solemn said, And bound the Holly round my head: The polish'd leaves, and berries red, Did rustling play; And, like a passing thought, she fled THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT. INSCRIBED TO R. A****, ESQ. Let not ambition mock their useful toil, I. My lov'd, my honour'd, much respected friend! The lowly train in life's sequcster'd scene; II. November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh, And weary o'er the moor his course does homeward bend. III At length his lonely cot appears in view, Beneath the shelter of an aged tree; 'Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher thro' To meet their Dad, wi' flichter in noise an' glee. His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonily, His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wife's smile, The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Does a' his weary carking cares beguile, An' makes him quite forget his labour and his toil. Belyve the elder bairns come drappin in, At service out, amang the farmers roun'; Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be. V. Wi' joy unfeign'd brothers and sisters meet, |