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Tell yon guid bluid' o' auld Boconnock's,
I'll be his debt twa mashlum bonnocks,2
An' drink his health in auld Nanse Tinnock's,"
Nine times a week,

If he some scheme, like tea an' winnocks,*
Wad kindly seek.

Could he some commutation broach,
I'll pledge my aith in guid braid Scotch,
He need na fear their foul reproach
Nor erudition,

Yon mixtie-maxties queer hotch-potch,
The Coalition.

7

Auld Scotland has a raucle tongue;
She's just a devil wi' a rung ;"
An' if she promise auld or young
To tak their part,

Though by the neck she should be strung,
She 'll no desert.

An' now, ye chosen Five-and-Forty,8
May still your mither's heart support ye;
Then, though a minister grow dorty,"
An' kick your place,

Ye'll snap your fingers, poor an' hearty,
Before his face.

God bless your honors a' your days
Wi' sowps o' kail10 an' brats o' claise,"
In spite o' a' the thievish kaes12

That haunt Saint Jamie's!

Your humble poet sings an' prays

While Rab his name is.

POSTSCRIPT.

Let half-starved slaves, in warmer skies,
See future wines, rich-clustering, rise—

1 Good blood.-2 Two bannocks or cakes made of mixed corn.

3 A worthy old hostess of the Author's in Mauchline, where he sometimes studied politics over a glass of guid auld Scotch drink.

4 Tea and windows; an allusion to Mr. Pitt's commutation tax.

5 Confusedly mixed.- Rash, fearless.—7 A cudgel.-8 The Scotch members of parliament.-9 Saucy.-10 Sups of kail-broth.-11 Rags of clothes.—12 Jackdaws.

Their lot auld Scotland ne'er envies,

But blythe and frisky,

She eyes her free-born, martial boys
Tak aff their whisky.

What tho' their Phoebus kinder warms,
While fragrance blooms and beauty charms!
When wretches range, in famish'd swarms,
The scented groves,

Or hounded forth, dishonor arms

In hungry droves:

Their gun 's a burden on their shouther;
They downa' bide the stink o' pouther;
Their bauldest thought's a hank'ring swither2
To stan' or rin,

Till skelp-a shot!-they 're aff a' throwther,3
To save their skin.

4

But bring a Scotsman frae his hill,
Clap in his cheek a Highland gill,1
Say, such is royal George's will,

An' there's the foe,

He has nae thought but how to kill
Twa at a blow.

Nae cauld, faint-hearted doubtings tease him;
Death comes, wi' fearless eye he sees him;
Wi' bluidy hand a welcome gies him :

An' when he fa's,

His latest draught o' breathin' lea’es3 him
In faint huzzas.

Sages their solemn een may steek,"
An' raise a philosophic reek,"

An' physically causes seek,

In clime an' season;

But tell me whisky's name in Greek,
I'll tell the reason.

Scotland, my auld respected Mither!

Tho' whylesR ye moistify your leather,

1 Cannot.-2 Hesitation.- All pell-mell, or in confusion.-4 A gill of High

land whisky.-5 Leaves.-6 Shut.-7 Smoke.-8 Sometimes.

4*

Till whare ye sit, on craps1 o' heather,
Ye tine your dam;'

(Freedom and Whisky gang thegither!)
Tak aff your dram!3

THE VISION.

DUAN FIRST.4

THE sun had closed the winter day,
The curlers' quat their roaring play,
An' hunger'd maukin' ta'en her way
To kail-yards green,

While faithless snaws ilk step betray
Whar she has been.

The thresher's weary flingin-tree®
The lee-lang1o day had tired me;
And whan the day had closed his e'e,
Far i' the west,

Ben i' the spence" right pensivelie,
I gaed to rest.

There, lanely, by the ingle-cheek,"
I sat and eyed the spewing reek,13
That fill'd, wi' hoast-provoking smeek,14
The auld clay biggin;

An' heard the restless rattons squeak

About the riggin'.

All in this mottie,16 misty clime,

I backward mused on wasted time,

1 Crops.-2 Lose your urine.

.15

3 Burns was not so much the votary of Bacchus as this and "Scotch Drinks," the preceding poem, would lead the reader to suppose. When "Auld Nanse Tinnock," the Mauchline landlady, found her name celebrated in this poem, she said, "Robin Burns may be a clever enough lad, but he has little regard to truth; for I'm sure the chiel' was never in a' his life aboon three times i' my house."

4 Duan, a term of Ossian's for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his Cath-Loda.

5 A game on the ice.- Did quit.—7 A hare.-8 Each.—9 A flail.—1o Livelong.-11 In the country parlor.-12 Fireside.-13 Smoke.-14 Cough-provoking smoke.—15 Building.—16 Full of motes.

How I had spent my youthfu' prime,
An' done nae-thing,

But stringin' blethers1 up in rhyme,
For fools to sing.

Had I to guid advice but harkit,"
I might, by this, hae led a market,
Or strutted in a bank and clarkit3
My cash-account:

While here, half-mad, half-fed, half-sarkit,*
Is a' th' amount.

I started, muttering, blockhead! coof!"
And heaved on high my waukit loof,
To swear by a' yon starry roof,

Or some rash aith,?

That I, henceforth, would be rhyme proof
Till my last breath-

When click! the string the snickR did draw;
And jee! the door gaed to the wa';

An' by my ingle lowe9 I saw,

Now bleezin'0 bright,

A tight, outlandish Hizzie," braw,

Come full in sight.

Ye need na doubt, I held my whisht;"
The infant aith, half-form'd, was crusht;
I glower'd as eerie 's I'd been dush't's
In some wild glen;

When sweet, like modest Worth, she blusht,
And stepped ben.14

Green, slender, leaf-clad holly-boughs
Were twisted, gracefu', round her brows;
I took her for some Scottish Muse,

By that same token;

An' come to stop those reckless vows,

Would soon been broken.

1 Foolish or romantic ideas.-2 Hearkened.—3 Wrote.-4 Badly provided with shirts. Ninny.-6 Thick or clumsy hand.-7 Oath.-8 The latch of a door.-9 Flame of the fire.-10 Blazing.-11 A young girl.-12 Was silent. 13 Stared frightfully, as if I had been suddenly pushed, or attacked by

an ox.

14 Into the parlor.

A "hair-brain'd sentimental trace,"
Was strongly marked in her face;

A wildy-witty, rustic grace

Shone full upon her;

Her eye, even turn'd on empty space,
Beam'd keen with Honor.

Down flow'd her robe, a tartan sheen,1
Till half a leg was scrimply seen;

And such a leg! my bonnie Jean

4

Could only peer3 it;

1

Sae straught, sae taper, tight, and clean,
Nane else came near it.

Her mantle large, of greenish hue,
My gazing wonder chiefly drew;

Deep lights and shades, bold-mingling, threw
A lustre grand;

And seem'd, to my astonish'd view,

A well-known land.

Here, rivers in the sea were lost;

There, mountains to the skies were tost;
Here, tumbling billows mark'd the coast,
With surging foam;

There, distant shone Art's lofty boast,
The lordly dome.

Here, Doon pour'd down his far-fetch'd floods;
There, well-fed Irwine stately thuds;5
Auld hermit Ayr staw thro' his woods,
On to the shore;

And many a lesser torrent scuds,

With seeming roar.

Low, in a sandy valley spread,
An ancient borough rear'd her head;
Still, as in Scottish story read,

She boasts a race,

To every nobler virtue bred,

And polish'd grace.

1 A bright, or shining tartan, or checkered woollen stuff, much worn in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands.

2 Scantily.-3 Equal.-4 Straight.-5 To make a loud continued noise.--• Stole.

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