BURNS. The honest heart that's free frae a' What though, like commoners of air, Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, In days when daisies deck the ground, On braes, when we please, then, It's no in titles nor in rank, It's no in wealth like Lon'on bank, And centre in the breast, Nae treasures nor pleasures That makes us right or wrang.10 Think ye that sic 11 as you and I, Wha drudge and drive through wet and dry Think ye, are we less blest than they Wha scarcely tent us in their way, As hardly worth their while? 413 Alas! how aft in haughty mood Baith careless and fearless Of either heaven or hell! It's a' an idle tale! Then let us cheerfu' acquiesce, And, even should misfortunes come, They make us see the naked truth, Though losses and crosses Be lessons right severe, There's wit there, ye'll get there, Ye'll find nae other where. Still more animated is his Answer to the Guid Wife [Mistress] of Wauchope House, written in March, 1787, of which this is the commencement : 1 Both. 4 I remember it well. 6 Thrash the corn on the barn floor. 8 Fatigued sore enough. 11 Every. 3 Know ourself. 5 Modest, bashful. 7 Hold a yoking at the plough. 10 With the rest. 13 Reaping. 15 With idle stories and nonsense. 9 Very. 12 Take rank in respect to my ridge. 14 T'other row of shocks. Ev'n then, a wish (I mind its pow'r), Shall strongly heave my breast, The rough bur-thistle, spreading wide I turned my weeding-heuk3 aside, My envy e'er could raise; But still the elements o' sang, She roused the forming strain : 9 At every kindling keek,10 I feared aye to speak. 8 But the most elevated and impassioned of the poems of this class is that entitled The Vision. It is too long to be quoted entire; its course, however, will be understood from the following extracts: The sun had closed the winter day, While faithless snaws 15 ilk 16 step betray There, lanely,' by the ingle-cheek, An' heard the restless rattons 12 squeak All in this mottie,14 misty clime, But stringin' blethers 15 up in rhyme, Had I to guid advice but harkit,16 While here, half-mad, half-fed, half-sarkit,19 I started, muttering Blockhead! Coof!20 |