But for thy friends, and they are mony, Wi' mornings blythe and e'enings funny, Fareweel, auld birkie ! Lord be near ye, If neist my heart I dinna wear ye, While BURNS they ca' me. TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL, GLENRIDDEL. (Extempore Lines on returning a Newspaper.) Ellisland, Monday Evening. YOUR news and review, Sir, I 've read through and Our friends the reviewers, those chippers and My goose-quill too rude is, to tell all your goodness Would to God I had one like a beam of the sun, And then all the world, Sir, should know it! TO MR. MITCHELL, Collector of Excise, Dumfries, 1796. FRIEND of the poet, tried and leal, p Loving. Dare not molest. 9 Clever fellow. $ Next. t Staunch, faithful. Alake, alake, the meikle deil Wi' a' his witches Are at it, skelpin'!" jig and reel, In my poor pouches. I modestly fu' fain" wad hint it, It would be kind; And while my heart wi' life-blood dunted, So may the auld year gang out moaning Domestic peace and comforts crowning POSTSCRIPT. Ye've heard this while how I've been licket, And sair me sheuk; But by guid luck I lape a wicket, And turn'd a neuk.d But by that health, I've got a share o't, Then farewell folly, hide and hair o't, u Tripping. The girl. • Whole. b A jacket. e Health and welfare. w Very desirous. The place of milking. c Leaped. d Corner. f More cautious. TO A GENTLEMAN WHOM HE HAD OFFENDED. THE friend whom wild from wisdom's way TO AN OLD SWEETHEART, After her marriage, with a Present of a copy of his Poems. ONCE fondly lov'd, and still remember'd dear, Sweet early object of my youthful vows, Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere, Friendship!-'tis all cold duty now allows :And when you read the simple, artless rhymes, One friendly sigh for him (he asks no more), Who distant burns in flaming, torrid climes, Or haply lies beneath th' Atlantic roar. TO MISS LOGAN, With Beattie's Poems, as a New-year's Gift. Jan. 1, 1787. AGAIN the silent wheels of time Their annual round have driv'n, No gifts have I from Indian coasts I send you more than India boasts, Ꮮ Our sex with guile and faithless love TO A YOUNG LADY, Miss Jessy Lewars, Dumfries; with a Present of Books. THINE be the volumes, Jessy fair, TO A YOUNG LADY, With a Present of Songs. HERE, where the Scottish Muse immortal lives, So may no ruffian-feeling in thy breast, Or pity's notes, in luxury of tears, As modest want the tale of woe reveals; While conscious virtue all the strain endears, And heav'n-born piety her sanction seals. TO A LADY, With a Present of a Pair of Drinking-Glasses. FAIR empress of the Poet's soul, And queen of PoetessesClarinda, take this little boon, This humble pair of glasses.And fill them high with generous juice, As generous as your mind; And pledge me in the generous toast'The whole of human kind!' To those who love us!'-second fill; But not to those whom we love; Lest we love those who love not us! A third To thee and me, love!' TO MISS CRUICKSHANKS, Never Boreas' hoary path, Never Eurus' pois'nous breath, Riot on thy virgin leaf! Nor even Sol too fiercely view Thy bosom blushing still with dew! May'st thou long, sweet crimson gem, Richly deck thy native stem; |