EPIGRAM ON A HENPECKED COUNTRY SQUIRE. We freely wad exchanged the wife, 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, With Cracken, the attorney, and Mundell, the quack, Send Willie the monger to hell with a smack. 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. EXTEMPORANEOUS EFFUSION On being appointed to the Excise. SEARCHING auld wives' barrels, That clarty barm' should stain my laurels, These muvin" things ca'd wives and weans ON SEEING THE BEAUTIFUL SEAT OF LORD G. WHAT dost thou in that mansion fair? Flit, G, and find Some narrow, dirty, dungeon cave, The picture of thy mind! ON THE SAME. No Stewart art thou, G—, ON THE SAME. BRIGHT ran thy line, O G Thro' many a far-famed sire! 1 Dirty yeast.-2 Moving. TO THE SAME, On the Author being threatened with his resentment. SPARE me thy vengeance, G- I ask no kindness at thy hand, EXTEMPORE IN THE COURT OF SESSION. TUNE.-Gillicrankie. LORD A-TE. He clench'd his pamphlets in his fist, He gap'd for 't, he grap'd for 't, He fand it was awa, man; But what his common sense came short, MR. ER-NE. COLLECTED Harry stood awee, And eyed the gathering storm, man: 2 Like torrents owre a linn, man; ON HEARING THAT THERE WAS FALSEHOOD IN THE REV. DR. BVERY LOOKS. THAT there is falsehood in his looks I must and will deny: They say their master is a knave- 1 Lost.-2 Waterfall. EXTEMPORE, On the late Mr. William Smellie, Author of the Philosophy of Natural History, and Member of the Antiquarian and Royal Societies of Edinburgh. To Crochallan came The old cock'd hat, the gray surtout, the same; EXTEMPORE, TO MR. SYME,1 On refusing to dine with him, after having been promised the first of company, and the first of cookery; 17th Dec., 1795. No more of your guests, be they titled or not, TO MR. S** E, With a present of a dozen of porter. OH, had the malt thy strength of mind, JERUSALEM TAVERN, Dumfries. LINES ADDRESSED TO MR. J. RANKINE, While he occupied the farm of Adamhill, in Ayrshire. AE day, as Death, that grusome carl,' 1 An intimate friend of the Poet's, with whom he made a very pleasant tour over the counties of Kirkcudbright and Galloway, in July and August, 1798. 2 Grim old man.-3 Other world. |