TO GAVIN HAMILTON, ESQ., MAUCHLINE. RECOMMENDING A BOY. Mosgaville, May 3, 1786. I HOLD it, Sir, my bounden duty, Was here to lure the lad away An' wad hae don't aff han':2 But lest he learn the callan tricks, As, faith, I muckle doubt him, Like scrapin' out auld Crummie's nicks, An' tellin' lies about them; Not fitted otherwhere. Altho' I say't, he's gleg enough, Ye'll catechise him every quirk, An' shore him weel wi' hell; An' gar5 him follow to the kirk -Aye when ye gang yoursel. Frae hame this comin' Friday, My word of honour I hae gi'en, To meet the warld's worm: To try to get the twa to gree, An' name the airles" an' the fee, In legal mode an' form: 1 Master Tootie then lived in Mauchline; a dealer in cows. It was his common practice to cut the nicks or markings from the horns of cattle, to disguise their age. He was an artful trick-contriving character; hence he is called a snick-drawer. Burns styles the Devil, in his address to that personage, an auld, snick-drawing dog."-Cromek. * Off hand. 8 Sharp. 5 Make. I ken he weel a snick can draw,1 When simple bodies let him; An' if a Devil be at a', In faith he's sure to get him. EPISTLE TO MR. M'ADAM OF CRAIGEN-GILLAN, IN SIR, o'er a gill I gat your card, "Now deil-ma-care about their jaw, 'Twas noble, Sir; 'twas like yoursel, Tho', by his banes wha in a tub On And when those legs to gude, warm kail, Wi' welcome canna bear me; A lee dyke-side, a sybow-tail, And barley scone shall cheer me. Heaven spare you lang to kiss the breath And bless your bonnie lasses baith, And God bless young Dunaskin's laird, And may he wear an auld man's beard, 1 Contrive a trick. 2 Diogenes. 8 Girls. TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL, GLENRIDDEL. EXTEMPORE LINES ON RETURNING A NEWSPAPER. Ellisland, Monday Evening. YOUR News and Review, Sir, I've read through and through, Sir, With little admiring or blaming : The papers are barren of home-news or foreign, No murders or rapes worth the naming. Our friends the Reviewers, those chippers and hewers, But of meet, or unmeet, in a fabrick complete, I'll boldly pronounce they are none, Sir. My goose-quill too rude is, to tell all your goodness Would to God I had one like a beam of the sun, TO TERRAUGHTY,' ON HIS BIRTHDAY. This natal morn, I see thy life is stuff o' prief,2 Scarce quite half worn. This day thou metes threescore eleven, To ilka Poet) On thee a tack o' seven times seven Will yet bestow it. If envious buckies view wi' sorrow Rake them, like Sodom and Gomorrah, 1 Mr. Maxwell, of Terraughty, near Dumfries. 8 Dust. 2 Proof. But for thy friends, and they are monie, Wi' mornings blythe and e'enings funny Fareweel, auld birkie !2 Lord be near ye, ye; While BURNS they ca' me. TO A LADY, WITH A PRESENT OF A PAIR OF DRINKING GLASSES. Edinburgh, March 17th, 1788. FAIR Empress of the Poet's soul, And Queen of Poetesses; Clarinda, take this little boon, This humble pair of glasses. And fill them high with generous juice, And pledge me in the generous toast- 66 "To those who love us !"-second fill; THE VOWELS. A TALE. 'Twas where the birch and sounding thong are ply'd, The noisy domicile of pedant pride; Where ignorance her darkening vapour throws, And cruelty directs the thickening blows; Upon a time, Sir Abece the great, In all his pedagogic powers elate, 1 Loving. 2 A clever fellow. 3 Molest. The lady was the Clarinda of the Poet's letters; some account of her will be found in the prefatory Memoir. His awful chair of state resolves to mount, First enter'd A, a grave, broad, solemn wight, The wailing minstrel of despairing woe; SKETCH.1 A LITTLE, upright, pert, tart, tripping wight, A man of fashion too, he made his tour, 1 The piece inscribed "R. G., Esq.," is a copy of verses I sent Mr. Graham, of Fintry, accompanying a request for his assistance in a matter to me of very great moment. This poem is a species of composition new to me, but I do not intend it shall be my last essay of the kind, as you will see by the "Poet's Progress." These fragments, if my design succeed, are but a small part of the intended whole. I propose it shall be the work of my utmost exertions, ripened by years. The fragment beginning, "A little, upright, pert, tart," &c., forms the postulate, 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 portraitsketching.-To Professor D. Stewart, Jan. 20, 1789. |