Then sore harass'd, and tir'd at last, with Fortune's vain delusion, O, I dropt my schemes, like idle dreams, and came to this conclusion, O-- The past was bad, and the future hid; its good or ill untrièd, O; But the present hour was in my pow'r, and so I would enjoy it, O.
No help, nor hope, nor view had I, nor person to befriend me, O; So I must toil, and sweat and broil, and labour to sustain me, O; To plough and sow, to reap and mow, my father bred me early, O; For one, he said, to labour bred, was a match for Fortune fairly, O.
Thus all obscure, unknown, and poor, thro' life I'm doom'd to wander, O, Till down my weary bones I lay in everlasting slumber, O; No view nor care, but shun whate'er might breed me pain or sorrow, O, I live to-day as well's I may, regardless of to-morrow, O.
But cheerful still, I am as well as a monarch in a palace, O. Tho' Fortune's frown still hunts me down, with all her wonted malice, O; I make indeed my daily bread, but ne'er can make it farther, O; But, as daily bread is all I need, I do not much regard her, O.
When sometimes by my labour I earn a little money, O, Some unforeseen misfortune comes generally upon me, O-- Mischance, mistake, or by neglect, or my good-natur'd folly, O; But come what will, I've sworn it still, I'll ne'er be melancholy, O.
All you who follow wealth and power with unremitting ardour, O, The more in this you look for bliss, you leave your view the farther, O; Had you the wealth Potosi boasts, or nations to adore you, O, A cheerful honest-hearted clown I will prefer before you, O.
The stress laid upon that part of Burns's production which has relation, near or remote, to his personal experiences with women is, in the current estimate, somewhat disproportionate. A surprisingly large number of his most effective songs are purely dramatic, are placed in the mouth of a man who is clearly not the poet, or, more frequently, in the mouth of a woman. There is little evidence that Burns would have been capable of sustained dramatic composition; on the other hand, he was far from being limited to purely personal lyric utterance. His versatility in giving expression to the amorous moods of the other sex is almost as great as in direct confession. A group of these dramatic lyrics will demonstrate this.