Tell yon guid bluid' o' auld Boconnock's, If he some scheme, like tea an' winnocks,* Could he some commutation broach, Yon mixtie-maxties queer hotch-potch, 7 Auld Scotland has a raucle tongue; Though by the neck she should be strung, An' now, ye chosen Five-and-Forty,8 Ye'll snap your fingers, poor an' hearty, God bless your honors a' your days That haunt Saint Jamie's! Your humble poet sings an' prays While Rab his name is. POSTSCRIPT. Let half-starved slaves, in warmer skies, 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 What tho' their Phoebus kinder warms, Or hounded forth, dishonor arms In hungry droves: Their gun 's a burden on their shouther; Till skelp-a shot!-they 're aff a' throwther,3 4 But bring a Scotsman frae his hill, An' there's the foe, He has nae thought but how to kill Nae cauld, faint-hearted doubtings tease him; An' when he fa's, His latest draught o' breathin' lea’es3 him Sages their solemn een may steek," An' physically causes seek, In clime an' season; But tell me whisky's name in Greek, 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, (Freedom and Whisky gang thegither!) THE VISION. DUAN FIRST.4 THE sun had closed the winter day, While faithless snaws ilk step betray The thresher's weary flingin-tree® Ben i' the spence" right pensivelie, There, lanely, by the ingle-cheek," 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, But stringin' blethers1 up in rhyme, Had I to guid advice but harkit," While here, half-mad, half-fed, half-sarkit,* I started, muttering, blockhead! coof!" Or some rash aith,? That I, henceforth, would be rhyme proof When click! the string the snickR did draw; 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;" When sweet, like modest Worth, she blusht, Green, slender, leaf-clad holly-boughs 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," A wildy-witty, rustic grace Shone full upon her; Her eye, even turn'd on empty space, Down flow'd her robe, a tartan sheen,1 And such a leg! my bonnie Jean 4 Could only peer3 it; 1 Sae straught, sae taper, tight, and clean, Her mantle large, of greenish hue, Deep lights and shades, bold-mingling, threw 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; There, distant shone Art's lofty boast, Here, Doon pour'd down his far-fetch'd floods; And many a lesser torrent scuds, With seeming roar. Low, in a sandy valley spread, 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. |