By this the sun was out o' sight, And darker gloamin' brought the night; [twilight] The bum-clock humm'd wi' lazy drone, [cockchafer] The kye stood rowtin' i' the loan; [cattle, lowing, lane] When up they gat and shook their lugs, [ears] Rejoiced they werena men but dogs; And each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
The satirical tendency becomes more evident in _The Holy Fair_. The personifications whom the poet meets on the way to the religious orgy are Superstition, Hypocrisy, and Fun, and symbolize exactly the elements in his treatment--two-thirds satire and one-third humorous sympathy. The handling of the preachers is in the manner we have already observed in the other ecclesiastical satires, but there is less animus and more vividness. Nothing could be more admirable in its way than the realism of the picture of the congregation, whether at the sermons or at their refreshments; and, as in _Halloween_, the union of the particular and the universal appears in the essential applicability of the psychology to an American camp-meeting as well as to a Scottish sacrament--
There's some are fou o' love divine, There's some are fou o' brandy.
_A robe of seeming truth and trust Hid crafty Observation; And secret hung, with poison'd crust, The dirk of Defamation: A mask that like the gorget show'd, Dye-varying on the pigeon; And for a mantle large and broad, He wrapt him in religion._ HYPOCRISY A LA MODE.
Upon a simmer Sunday morn, When Nature's face is fair, I walked forth to view the corn, An' snuff the caller air. [fresh] The risin' sun, owre Galston muirs, Wi' glorious light was glintin'; The hares were hirplin' down the furrs, [limping, furrows] The lav'rocks they were chantin' [larks] Fu' sweet that day.
As lightsomely I glowr'd abroad, [stared] To see a scene sae gay, Three hizzies, early at the road, [girls] Cam skelpin' up the way. [scudding] Twa had manteeles o' dolefu' black, But ane wi' lyart lining; [gray] The third, that gaed a wee a-back, [went a little] Was in the fashion shining Fu' gay that day.
The twa appeared like sisters twin, In feature, form, an' claes; Their visage wither'd, lang an' thin, An' sour as ony slaes: [sloes] The third cam up, hap-stap-an'-lowp, [hop-step-and-jump] As light as ony lambie, An' wi' a curchie low did stoop, [curtsey] As soon as e'er she saw me, Fu' kind that day.