NAPOLI

But first hang out, that she'll discern
Your hymeneal charter.

Then heave aboard your grapple airn,1
An', large upon her quarter,

Come full that day.

Ye, lastly, bonnie blossoms a',
Ye royal Lasses dainty,

Heav'n mak you guid as weel as braw,
An' gie you lads a plenty :
But sneer na British boys awa',
For Kings are unco scant ay;
An' German Gentles are but sma',
They're better just than want ay
On onie day.

God bless you a'! consider now
Ye're unco muckle dautet ;2
But, ere the course o' life be through,
It may be bitter sautet:
An' I hae seen their coggie3 fou,
That yet hae tarrow't at it;
But or the day was done, I trow,

The laggen3 they hae clautet

Fu' clean that day.

THE VISION.

DUAN FIRST.7

THE sun had closed the winter day,
The Curlers quat their roarin play,
And hunger'd Maukin' taen her way

To kail-yards green,

While faithless snaws ilk step betray

Where she has been.

The thresher's weary flingin-tree
The lee-lang day had tired me;

And when the day had clos'd his e’e,

Far i' the west,

Ben i' the Spence, 10 right pensivelie,
I gaed to rest.

1 Iron. 2 Caressed. 3 Little wooden dish.

5 The angle between the side and bottom of the dish.

See his "

4 Murmured.

6 Scraped.

7. Duan, a term of Ossian's for the different divisions of a digressive poem. Cath-Loda," vol. ii. of M'Pherson's translation.-R. B. 8 Players at a game on the ice, called curling. 9 Hare. 10 The parlour,

There, lanely, by the ingle-cheek,
I sat and ey'd the spewing reek,
That fill'd, wi' hoast-provoking smeek,
The auld, clay biggin ;'
An' heard the restless rattons2 squeak

About the riggin.

All in this mottie, misty clime,
I backward mus'd on wasted time,
How I had spent my youthfu' prime,

An' done nae-thing,

But stringin blethers 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 clarkit

My cash-account:

While here, half-mad, half-fed, half-sarkit3
Is a' th' amount.

I started, mutt'ring, blockhead! coof!4
And heav'd on high my waukit loof,5
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 snick did draw;
And, jee! the door gaed to the wa';

And by my ingle-lowe? I saw,

Now bleezin bright,

A tight, outlandish Hizzie, braw,

Come full in sight.

Ye need na doubt, I held my whist;8
The infant aith, half-form'd, was crusht;
I glowr'd as eerie's I'd been dusht9

In some wild glen;

When sweet, like modest worth, she blusht,

And stepped ben.10

Green, slender, leaf-clad holly-boughs
Were twisted, gracefu', round her brows,

I took her for some Scottish Muse,

By that same token;

And come to stop those reckless vows,

1 House.

Would soon been broken.

2 Rats. 3 Half-provided with shirts. 4 Ninny.

5 Thickened or stained palm. 6 Latch.

8 Silence.

9 Struck down.

7 Hearth-flame.
10 Inward.

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

Shone full upon

her;

Her eye, ev'n turn'd on empty space,

Beam'd keen with Honour,

Down flow'd her robe, a tartan sheen;
Till half a leg was scrimply1 seen;
And such a leg! my bonnie Jean

Could only peer it;

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 :2
Auld hermit Ayr staw3 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 ev'ry nobler virtue bred,

And polish'd grace.

By stately tow'r or palace fair,

Or ruins pendent in the air,

Bold stems of Heroes, here and there,

I could discern;

Some seem'd to muse, some seem'd to dare,

With features stern.

1 Partly.

2 Sounds.

3 Did steal.