N

AE heathen name shall I prefix

Frae Pindus or Parnassus;

Auld Reekie dings them a' to sticks,
For rhyme-inspiring lasses.

Jove's tunefu' dochters three times three
Made Homer deep their debtor;

But, gien the body half an e'e,

Nine Ferriers wad done better !

Last day my mind was in a bog,
Down George's Street I stoited;

A creeping, cauld, prosaic fog
My very senses doited.

Do what I dought to set her free,
My saul lay in the mire ;

Ye turn'd a neuk-I saw your e'e-
She took the wing like fire!

284 POEM ON PASTORAL POETRY.

The mournfu' sang I here enclose,
In gratitude I send you;

And wish and pray in rhyme sincere
A' guid things may attend you.

VERSES

TO MISS GRAHAM OF FINTRY, WITH A PRESENT OF

SONGS.

HERE, where Scottish

In sacred strains and tuneful numbers join'd,
Accept the gift, though humble he who gives;
Rich is the tribute of the grateful mind.

So may no ruffian feeling in thy breast
Discordant jar thy bosom-chords among !
But Peace attune thy gentle soul to rest,
Or Love, ecstatic, wake his seraph song!

Or Pity's notes, in luxury of tears,

As modest Want the tale of woe reveals; While conscious Virtue all the strain endears, And heaven-born Piety her sanction seals.

POEM ON PASTORAL POETRY.

HALL, Poesio! thou my pro reserved!

In chase o' thee, what crowds hae swerved Frae common sense, or sunk ennerved

'Mang heaps o' clavers;

POEM ON PASTORAL POETRY. 285

And och owre aft thy joes hae starved 'Mid a' thy favours !

Say, lassie, why thy train amang,
While loud the trump's heroic clang,
And sock or buskin skelp alang

To death or marriage;

Scarce ane has tried the shepherd sang
But wi' miscarriage?

In Homer's craft Jock Milton thrives;
Eschylus' pen Will Shakespeare drives;
Wee Pope, the knurlin', till him rives
Horatian fame;

In thy sweet sang, Barbauld, survives
Even Sappho's flame.

But thee, Theocritus, wha matches?
They're no herd's ballats, Maro's catches;
Squire Pope but busks his skinklin patches
O' heathen tatters:

I pass by hunders, nameless wretches,

That ape their betters

In this braw age o' wit and lear,

Will nane the Shepherd's whistle mair
Blaw sweetly in its native air

And rural grace;

And wi' the far-famed Grecian share

A rival place?

Yes! there is ane; a Scottish callan-
There's ane; come forrit, honest Allan !
Thou need na jouk behint the hallan,

A chiel sae clever ;

286

TO CHLORIS.

The teeth o' Time may gnaw Tantallan,
But thou's for ever!

Thou paints auld Nature to the nines
In thy sweet Caledonian lines;

Nae gowden stream through myrtles twines,
Where Philomel,

While nightly breezes sweep the vines,
Her griefs will tell!

In gowany glens thy burnie strays,
Where bonnie lasses bleach their claes;
Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes,

Wi' hawthorns grey,

Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays
At close o' day.

Thy rural loves are Nature's sel;
Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell;
Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell
O' witchin' love;

That charm that can the strongest quell,
The sternest move.

TO CHLORIS.

IS Friendship's pledge, my young, fair

'TIS

friend,

Nor thou the gift refuse,

Nor with unwilling ear attend

The moralising Muse.

POETICAL ADDRESS.

Since thou, in all thy youth and charms,
Must bid the world adieu

(A world 'gainst peace in constant arms),
To join the friendly few;

Since, thy gay morn of life o'ercast,
Chill came the tempest's lower
(And ne'er misfortune's eastern blast
Did nip a fairer flower);

Since life's gay scenes must charm no more,
Still much is left behind;

Still nobler wealth hast thou in store-
The comforts of the mind!

Thine is the self-approving glow
On conscious honour's part;
And-dearest gift of Heaven below-
Thine friendship's truest heart.

The joys refined of sense and taste,
With every Muse to rove:
And doubly were the poet blest,
These joys could he improve.

287

POETICAL ADDRESS TO MR. WILLIAM TYTLER,

R

WITH A PRESENT OF THE BARD'S PICTURE.

EVERED defender of beauteous Stuart,

Of Stuart, a name once respected—

A name which to love was the mark of a true heart, But now 'tis despised and neglected!