But now they'll busk' her like a fright, .2 The stiffest o' them a' he bow'd, We've lost a birkie3 weel worth gowd, Now gawkies, tawpies, gowks and fools,* .6 He who could brush them down to mools," The brethren o' the Commerce-chaumers Amang them a'; I fear they'll now mak mony a stammer, Nae mair we see his levee door 9 Philosophers and poets pour, The adjutant o' a' the score, Willie's awa! Now worthy Gregory's Latin face, 10 As Rome ne'er saw They a' maun meet some ither place, Poor Burns-e'en Scotch drink canna quicken, 1 Dress.-2 Frightened.-3 Clever fellow.-4 Foolish, thoughtless young persons.-5 Mushrooms.—6 A small wood in a hollow.-7 Dust. 8 The Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh, of which Mr. C. was secretary. • Many literary gentlemen were accustomed to meet at Mr. C.'s house at breakfast. 10 Must.-11 Chirps. Scared frae its minnie1 and the clecken2 Grief's gien1 his heart an unco kickin', Now every sour-mou'd, girnin' blellum,* 8 His quill may draw; He wha could brawlie9 ward their bellum," Up wimpling," stately Tweed I've sped, And Ettrick banks now roaring red, But every joy and pleasure 's fled, May I be slander's common speech; 12 When I forget thee! Willie Creech, May never wicked fortune touzle him! 13 He canty claw!15 Then to the blesséd, new Jerusalem, LIBERTY.-A FRAGMENT. THEE, Caledonia, thy wild heaths among— 1 Mother.-2 Brood.-3 The pewit-gull.-4 Given.-5 Grinning.-6 A talking fellow.- People.-8 A worthless fellow. Finely.-10 Their ill-nature. -11 Meandering.-12 Stretched.-13 Head.-14 Old.-15 Cheerfully scratch. Immingled with the mighty dead! Beneath that hallow'd turf where Wallace lies! Hear it not, Wallace, in thy bed of death! Ye babbling winds, in silence sweep; One quenched in darkness like the sinking star, THE VOWELS.-A TALE. 'Twas where the birch and sounding thong are plied, The noisy domicile of pedant pride; Where Ignorance her darkening vapor throws, His awful chair of state resolves to mount, In rueful apprehension enter'd O, FRAGMENT, Inscribed to the Right Hon. C. J. Fox. How wisdom and folly meet, mix, and unite; I care not, not I, let the critics go whistle. But now for a patron, whose name and whose glory At once may illustrate and honor my story. Thou first of our orators, first of our wits; Yet whose parts and acquirements seem mere lucky hits; For using thy name offers fifty excuses. Good L―d, what is man! for as simple he looks, Do but try to develop his hooks and his crooks; With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil, All in all he's a problem must puzzle the devil. On his one ruling passion Sir Pope hugely labors, That, like th' old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbors: Mankind are his show-box-a friend, would you know him? Pull the string, ruling passion, the picture will show him. What pity, in rearing so beauteous a system, One trifling particular, truth, should have miss'd him; For, spite of his fine, theoretic positions, Mankind is a science defies definitions. Some sort all our qualities each to its tribe, And think human nature they truly describe; Have you found this, or t'other? there's more in the wind, As by one drunken fellow his comrades you'll find. SKETCH.1 A LITTLE, upright, pert, tart, tripping wight, A man of fashion too, he made his tour, Still making work his selfish craft must mend. 1 This sketch seems to be one of a series, intended for a projected work, under the title of "The Poet's Progress." This character was sent as a specimen, accompanied by a letter, to Professor Dugald Stewart, in which it is thus noticed: "The fragment beginning 'A little, upright, pert, tart,' &c., I have not shown to any man living, till I now show it to you. It forms the postulata, the axioms, the definition of a character, which, if it appear at all, shall be placed in a variety of lights. This particular part I send you merely as a sample of my hand at portrait sketching." 16* |