ON WEE JOHNIE. Hic jacet wee Johnie. WHоE'ER thou art, O reader, know, That death has murder'd Johnie! ON JY B—Y, WRITER IN DUMFRIES. HERE lies J- -y B honest man! Cheat him, Devil, if you can. ON A PERSON NICKNAMED THE MARQUIS, Who desired Burns to write one on him. HERE lies a mock Marquis, whose titles were shamm'd, If ever he rises it will be to be d-d. ON A SCHOOLMASTER IN CLEISH PARISH, HERE lie Willie M-hie's banes: O Satan, when ye tak him, Gie him the schulin" of your weans;2 FOR MR. GABRIEL RICHARDSON, Brewer, Dumfries; (but who, much to the satisfaction of his friends, has not yet needed one, 1819. HERE Brewer Gabriel's fire's extinct, He's blest-if, as he brew'd, he drink Educating.-2 Children. ON WALTER S SIO a reptile was Wat, Sic a miscreant slave, That the worms e'en d-d him In his flesh there's a famine, ON A LAP-DOG NAMED ECHO. IN wood and wild, ye warbling throng, Your heavy loss deplore; Now half-extinct your powers of song, Sweet Echo is no more. Ye jarring, screeching things around, SONGS AND BALLADS. BANNOCKBURN. ROBERT BRUCE'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY. 'I am delighted," says Burns to Mr. Thomson, "with many little melodies which the learned musician despises as silly and insipid. I do not know whether the old air "Hey tuttie tattie," may rank among this number; but well I know that, with Frazer's hautboy, it has filled my eyes with tears. There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places of Scotland, that it was Robert Bruce's march at the battle of Bannockburn. This thought, in my solitary wanderings, warmed me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of liberty and independence, which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, fitted to the air, that one might suppose to be the gallant royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning." Now's the day, and now 's the hour; Wha will be a traitor knave? Wha for Scotland's king and law By oppression's woes and pains! Lay the proud usurpers low! THE SAME. As altered, at the suggestion of Mr. Thomson, to suit the air of "Lewie Gordon." SCOTS, wha hae wi' Wallace bled; Or to glorious victorie. Now's the day, and now 's the hour; Wha will be a traitor knave? Wha sae base as be a slave? Traitor! coward! turn and flee! Wha for Scotland's king and law By oppression's woes and pains! Lay the proud usurpers low! Forward! let us do, or die! This verse is chiefly borrowed from Blind Harry's Wallace: "A false usurper sinks in every foe, And Liberty returns with every blow." AULD LANG SYNE. Burns gave this song to the public as a production of the "olden time;" but it was afterwards discovered to be his own. "Auld Lang Syne" owes all its attractions, if it owes not its origin, to the muse of Burns. So exquisitely has the poet eked out the old with the new, that it would puzzle a very profound antiquary to separate the ancient from the modern. SHOULD auld acquaintance be forgot, For auld lang syne, my dear, We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, We twa hae run about the braes, But we've wander'd mony a weary foot, For auld lang syne, &c. We twa hae paidl't' i' the burn,3 But seas between us braid hae roar'd, Sin' auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, &c. And here's a hand, my trusty fier,* And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,* For auld lang syne, &c. And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp, And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, &c. 1 Wild daisies.-2 To wade or walk in the water.-3 Rivulet.-4 Friend. • Liberal draught. |