Delphi Complete Works of Robert Burns (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series) (57 page)

BOOK: Delphi Complete Works of Robert Burns (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series)
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But here my Muse her wing maun cour,
Sic flights are far beyond her power;
  
180
To sing how Nannie lap and flang,
(A souple jade she was and strang),
And how Tam stood, like ane bewithc’d,
And thought his very een enrich’d:
Even Satan glowr’d, and fidg’d fu’ fain,
  
185
And hotch’d and blew wi’ might and main:
Till first ae caper, syne anither,
Tam tint his reason a thegither,
And roars out, “Weel done, Cutty-sark!”
And in an instant all was dark:
  
190
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied.
When out the hellish legion sallied.

 

 
As bees bizz out wi’ angry fyke,
When plundering herds assail their byke;
As open pussie’s mortal foes,
  
195
When, pop! she starts before their nose;
As eager runs the market-crowd,
When “Catch the thief!” resounds aloud;
So Maggie runs, the witches follow,
Wi’ mony an eldritch skreich and hollow.
  
200

 

 
Ah, Tam! Ah, Tam! thou’ll get thy fairin!
In hell, they’ll roast thee like a herrin!
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin!
Kate soon will be a woefu’ woman!
Now, do thy speedy-utmost, Meg,
  
205
And win the key-stone o’ the brig;
There, at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the keystane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!
  
210
For Nannie, far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi’ furious ettle;
But little wist she Maggie’s mettle!
Ae spring brought off her master hale,
  
215
But left behind her ain grey tail:
The carlin claught her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

 

 
Now, wha this tale o’ truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son, take heed:
  
220
Whene’er to Drink you are inclin’d,
Or Cutty-sarks rin in your mind,
Think ye may buy the joys o’er dear;
Remember Tam o’ Shanter’s mare.

 

 

Chronological List of Poems

 

Alphabetical List of Poems

 

311.

 

On the Birth of a Posthumous Child

 

Born in peculiar circumstances of family distress.

 

SWEET flow’ret, pledge o’ meikle love,
 
And ward o’ mony a prayer,
What heart o’ stane wad thou na move,
 
Sae helpless, sweet, and fair?

 

November hirples o’er the lea,
  
5
 
Chill, on thy lovely form:
And gane, alas! the shelt’ring tree,
 
Should shield thee frae the storm.

 

May He who gives the rain to pour,
 
And wings the blast to blaw,
  
10
Protect thee frae the driving show’r,
 
The bitter frost and snaw.

 

May He, the friend o’ Woe and Want,
 
Who heals life’s various stounds,
Protect and guard the mother plant,
  
15
 
And heal her cruel wounds.

 

But late she flourish’d, rooted fast,
 
Fair in the summer morn,
Now feebly bends she in the blast,
 
Unshelter’d and forlorn.
  
20

 

Blest be thy bloom, thou lovely gem,
 
Unscath’d by ruffian hand!
And from thee many a parent stem
 
Arise to deck our land!

 

 

 

Chronological List of Poems

 

Alphabetical List of Poems

 

312.

 

Elegy on the late Miss Burnet of Monboddo

 

LIFE ne’er exulted in so rich a prize,
As Burnet, lovely from her native skies;
Nor envious death so triumph’d in a blow,
As that which laid th’ accomplish’d Burnet low.

 

Thy form and mind, sweet maid, can I forget?
  
5
 
In richest ore the brightest jewel set!
In thee, high Heaven above was truest shown,
 
As by His noblest work the Godhead best is known.

 

In vain ye flaunt in summer’s pride, ye groves;
 
Thou crystal streamlet with thy flowery shore,
  
10
Ye woodland choir that chaunt your idle loves,
 
Ye cease to charm; Eliza is no more.

 

Ye healthy wastes, immix’d with reedy fens;
 
Ye mossy streams, with sedge and rushes stor’d:
Ye rugged cliffs, o’erhanging dreary glens,
  
15
 
To you I fly — ye with my soul accord.

 

Princes, whose cumb’rous pride was all their worth,
 
Shall venal lays their pompous exit hail,
And thou, sweet Excellence! forsake our earth,
 
And not a Muse with honest grief bewail?
  
20

 

We saw thee shine in youth and beauty’s pride,
 
And Virtue’s light, that beams beyond the spheres;
But, like the sun eclips’d at morning tide,
 
Thou left us darkling in a world of tears.

 

The parent’s heart that nestled fond in thee,
  
25
 
That heart how sunk, a prey to grief and care;
So deckt the woodbine sweet yon aged tree;
 
So, from it ravish’d, leaves it bleak and bare.

 

Chronological List of Poems

 

Alphabetical List of Poems

 

313.

 

Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots

 

NOW Nature hangs her mantle green
 
On every blooming tree,
And spreads her sheets o’ daisies white
 
Out o’er the grassy lea;
Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams,
  
5
 
And glads the azure skies;
But nought can glad the weary wight
 
That fast in durance lies.

 

Now laverocks wake the merry morn
 
Aloft on dewy wing;
  
10
The merle, in his noontide bow’r,
 
Makes woodland echoes ring;
The mavis wild wi’ mony a note,
 
Sings drowsy day to rest:
In love and freedom they rejoice,
  
15
 
Wi’ care nor thrall opprest.

 

Now blooms the lily by the bank,
 
The primrose down the brae;
The hawthorn’s budding in the glen,
 
And milk-white is the slae:
  
20
The meanest hind in fair Scotland
 
May rove their sweets amang;
But I, the Queen of a’ Scotland,
 
Maun lie in prison strang.

 

I was the Queen o’ bonie France,
  
25
 
Where happy I hae been;
Fu’ lightly raise I in the morn,
 
As blythe lay down at e’en:
And I’m the sov’reign of Scotland,
 
And mony a traitor there;
  
30
Yet here I lie in foreign bands,
 
And never-ending care.

 

But as for thee, thou false woman,
 
My sister and my fae,
Grim Vengeance yet shall whet a sword
  
35
 
That thro’ thy soul shall gae;
The weeping blood in woman’s breast
 
Was never known to thee;
Nor th’ balm that draps on wounds of woe
 
Frae woman’s pitying e’e.
  
40

 

My son! my son! may kinder stars
 
Upon thy fortune shine;
And may those pleasures gild thy reign,
 
That ne’er wad blink on mine!
God keep thee frae thy mother’s faes,
  
45
 
Or turn their hearts to thee:
And where thou meet’st thy mother’s friend,
 
Remember him for me!

 

O! soon, to me, may Summer suns
 
Nae mair light up the morn!
  
50
Nae mair to me the Autumn winds
 
Wave o’er the yellow corn?
And, in the narrow house of death,
 
Let Winter round me rave;
And the next flow’rs that deck the Spring,
  
55
 
Bloom on my peaceful grave!

 

 

 

Chronological List of Poems

 

Alphabetical List of Poems

 

314.

 

There’ll never be Peace till Jamie comes hame (Song)

 

BY yon Castle wa’, at the close of the day,
I heard a man sing, tho’ his head it was grey:
And as he was singing, the tears doon came, —
There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

 

The Church is in ruins, the State is in jars,
  
5
Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars,
We dare na weel say’t, but we ken wha’s to blame, —
There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

 

My seven braw sons for Jamie drew sword,
But now I greet round their green beds in the yerd;
  
10
It brak the sweet heart o’ my faithful and dame, —
There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

 

Now life is a burden that bows me down,
Sin’ I tint my bairns, and he tint his crown;
But till my last moments my words are the same, —
15
There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.

 

 

 

Chronological List of Poems

 

Alphabetical List of Poems

 

315.

 

Out over the Forth (Song)

 

OUT over the Forth, I look to the North;
 
But what is the north and its Highlands to me?
The south nor the east gie ease to my breast,
 
The far foreign land, or the wide rolling sea.

 

But I look to the west when I gae to rest,
  
5
 
That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be;
For far in the west lives he I loe best,
 
The man that is dear to my babie and me.

 

 

 

Chronological List of Poems

 

Alphabetical List of Poems

 

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