Till, quite transmugrified, they're grown Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames, Then gently scan your brother man, wrang, One point must still be greatly dark- And just as lamely can ye mark Who made the heart, 'tis He alone He knows each chord-its various tone, Then at the balance let's be mute, We never can adjust it; What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted. THE INVENTORY. IN ANSWER TO A MANDATE BY THE SURVEYOR OF TAXES. MR. CHAMBERS says:-"The 'Inventory' was written in answer to a mandate sent by Mr. Aiken of Ayr, the surveyor of windows, carriages, &c., for the district, to each farmer, ordering him to send a signed list of his horses, servants, wheel-carriages, &c., and to state whether he was a married man or a bachelor, and also the number of his children. The poem is chiefly remarkable for the information it gives concerning the farm, the household, and the habits of Burns." 1 Ear. SIR, as your mandate did request, Imprimis, then, for carriage cattle, 2 Perhaps. 3 A little bit. As ever drew afore a pettle.1 If he be spared to be a beast, Wheel-carriages I hae but few, And my auld mither brunt the trin'le. For men, I've three mischievous boys, I've nane in female servan' station, The answer to a leading question in the Shorter Catechism. I hae nae wife, and that my bliss is, And now, remember, Mr. Aiken, This list wi' my ain hand I've wrote it, MOSSGIEL, February 22, 1786. ROBERT BURNS. TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY, ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH IN APRIL 1786. MR. CHAMBERS says:-"The Mountain Daisy' was composed, as the poet has related, at the plough. The field where he crushed the 'Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower' lies next to that in which he turned up the nest of the mouse, and both are on the farm of Mossgiel, and still shown to anxious inquirers by the neighbouring peasantry." WEE, modest, crimson-tippèd flower, Thou's met me in an evil hour; Thy slender stem : To spare thee now is past my power, Thou bonny gem. Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet, The bonny lark, companion meet, 1 Comely. 2 Tramp. 5 Walk. 4 Dust. * An illegitimate child born to the poet by a female servant of his mother's. Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet, When upward springing, blithe, to greet Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Scarce rear'd above the parent earth The flaunting flowers our gardens yield, O' clod or stane, Adorns the histie stibble-field, Unseen, alane. Of prudent lore, Till billows rage, and gales blow hard, Such fate to suffering worth is given, To misery's brink, Till, wrench'd of every stay but Heaven, He, ruin'd, sink! Even thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate, Full on thy bloom, Till, crush'd beneath the furrow's weight, Shall be thy doom! 2 Shelter. 1 Peeped. Barren. LAMENT, OCCASIONED BY THE UNFORTUNATE ISSUE OF A FRIEND'S AMOUR. AFTER Speaking of the uproar raised against him by the appearance of "Holy Willie's Prayer," when "the unco guid," the over righteous, were endeavouring to devise some means of prosecuting their daring assailant, his unfortunate worldly circumstances gave some of them an opportunity which he supposed they would not be slow to follow up of laying him by the heels in prison. He says:-"Unluckily for me, my wanderings led me on another side, within point-blank shot of their heaviest metal. This is the unfortunate story that gave rise to my printed poem 'The Lament.' This was a most melancholy affair, which I cannot yet bear to reflect on, and had very nearly given me one or two of the principal qualifications for a place among those who have lost the chart, and mistaken the reckoning of rationality. I had been for some days skulking from covert to covert, under all the terrors of a jail; as some illadvised people had uncoupled the merciless pack of the law at my heels. I had taken the last farewell of my few friends; my chest was on the road to Greenock; I had composed the last song I should ever measure in Caledonia, 'The Gloomy Night is Gathering Fast,' when a letter from Dr. Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes, by opening new prospects to my poetic ambition." "It is scarcely necessary," Gilbert Burns says, "to mention that 'The Lament' was composed on that unfortunate passage in his matrimonial history which I have mentioned in my letter to Mrs. Dunlop, [alluding to his connexion with Jean Armour]. After the first distraction of his feelings had subsided, that connexion could no longer be concealed. Robert durst not engage with a family in his poor unsettled state, but was anxious to shield his partner by every means in his power, from the consequences of their imprudence. It was agreed, therefore, between them, that they should make a legal acknowledgment of an irregular and private marriage; that he should go to Jamaica to push his fortune; and that she should remain with her father till it might please Providence to put the means of supporting a family in his power." "Alas! how oft does goodness wound itself, And sweet affection prove the spring of woe!"-HOME. O THOU pale orb, that silent shines, And wanders here to wail and weep! With woe I nightly vigils keep Beneath thy wan, unwarming beam; I joyless view thy rays adorn Thou busy power, remembrance, cease! Ah! must the agonising thrill For ever bar returning peace! No idly-feign'd poetic pains My sad, love-lorn lamentings claim; |