muzzled

worse

much

Nae hand-cuff'd, mizzl'd, half-shackl'd Regent,
But, like himsel, a full free agent,

Be sure ye follow out the plan

Nae waur than he did, honest man!
As muckle better as ye can.

STREAMS that glide in Orient plains,
Never bound by Winter's chains;

Glowing here on golden sands,
There immixed with foulest stains

From tyranny's empurpled hands;
These, their richly gleaming waves,
I leave to tyrants and their slaves:
Give me the stream that sweetly laves
The banks by Castle Gordon.

II

Spicy forests ever gay,

Shading from the burning ray

Hapless wretches sold to toil;
Or, the ruthless native's way,

Bent on slaughter, blood and spoil;

Woods that ever verdant wave,

I leave the tyrant and the slave :
Give me the groves that lofty brave
The storms of Castle Gordon.

III

Wildly here without control

Nature reigns, and rules the whole;
In that sober pensive mood,

Dearest to the feeling soul,

She plants the forest, pours the flood.

Life's poor day I'll, musing, rave,

And find at night a sheltering cave,
Where waters flow and wild woods wave
By bonie Castle Gordon.

II

While some, like slav'ring, doited stots
Stoit'ring out thro' the midden dub,
Fankit their heels amang their coats
And gart the floor their backsides rub;

hare; fence

boy

If; eyes

III

Gordon, the great, the gay, the gallant,
Skip't like a maukin owre a dyke:
Deil tak me, since I was a callant,
Gif e'er my een beheld the like!

III

Is he slain by Hielan' bodies?

Igo and ago

And eaten like a wether haggis?

Iram, coram, dago

IV

Is he to Abra'm's bosom gane?

Igo and ago

Or haudin Sarah by the wame?

Iram, coram, dago

V

Where'er he be, the Lord be near him!

Igo and ago

As for the Deil, he daur na steer him.

Iram, coram, dago

VI

But please transmit th' enclosed letter
Igo and ago

Which will oblige your humble debtor
Iram, coram, dago

VII

So may ye hae auld stanes in store,

Igo and ago

The very stanes that Adam bore!

Iram, coram, dago

creatures

holding; belly

[Notes]

VIII

So may ye get in glad possession,
Igo and ago

The coins o' Satan's coronation!

Iram, coram, dago

NEW YEAR'S DAY

1791

THIS day Time winds th' exhausted chain,
To run the twelvemonth's length again:
I see the old, bald-pated fellow,

With ardent eyes, complexion sallow,
Adjust the unimpair'd machine

To wheel the equal, dull routine.

The absent lover, minor heir,
In vain assail him with their prayer:
Deaf as my friend, he sees them press,
Nor makes the hour one moment less.
Will you (the Major's with the hounds;
The happy tenants share his rounds;
Coila's fair Rachel's care to-day,

And blooming Keith's engaged with Gray)
From housewife cares a minute borrow
(That grandchild's cap will do to-morrow),

And join with me a-moralizing?

This day's propitious to be wise in!