And, in your lug, most reverend James, To hear you roar and rowt, Few men o' sense will doubt your claims To rank amang the nowt.
And when ye're number'd wi' the dead, Below a grassy hillock, With justice they may mark your head-- “Here lies a famous bullock!”
Great Nature spoke: observant man obey'd--Pope.
Let other heroes boast their scars, The marks of sturt and strife: And other poets sing of wars, The plagues of human life:
Shame fa' the fun, wi' sword and gun To slap mankind like lumber! I sing his name, and nobler fame, Wha multiplies our number.
Great Nature spoke, with air benign, “Go on, ye human race; This lower world I you resign; Be fruitful and increase. The liquid fire of strong desire I've pour'd it in each bosom; Here, on this had, does Mankind stand, And there is Beauty's blossom.”
The Hero of these artless strains, A lowly bard was he, Who sung his rhymes in Coila's plains, With meikle mirth an'glee; Kind Nature's care had given his share Large, of the flaming current; And, all devout, he never sought To stem the sacred torrent.
He felt the powerful, high behest Thrill, vital, thro' and thro'; And sought a correspondent breast, To give obedience due: Propitious Powers screen'd the young flow'rs, From mildews of abortion; And low! the bard--a great reward-- Has got a double portion!
Auld cantie Coil may count the day, As annual it returns, The third of Libra's equal sway, That gave another Burns, With future rhymes, an' other times, To emulate his sire: To sing auld Coil in nobler style With more poetic fire.
Ye Powers of peace, and peaceful song, Look down with gracious eyes; And bless auld Coila, large and long, With multiplying joys; Lang may she stand to prop the land, The flow'r of ancient nations; And Burnses spring, her fame to sing, To endless generations!
Mr. Chalmers, a gentleman in Ayrshire, a particular friend of mine, asked me to write a poetic epistle to a young lady, his Dulcinea. I had seen her, but was scarcely acquainted with her, and wrote as follows:--
Wi' braw new branks in mickle pride, And eke a braw new brechan, My Pegasus I'm got astride, And up Parnassus pechin; Whiles owre a bush wi' donwward crush, The doited beastie stammers; Then up he gets, and off he sets, For sake o' Willie Chalmers.