If wi' the hizzie down ye sent it, And while my It would be kind; heart wi' life-blood dunted, I'd bear't in mind. So may the auld year gang out moaning Domestic peace To thee and thine; and comforts crowning The hale design. POSTSCRIPT. Ye've heard this while how I've been licket, And sair me sheuk; But by guid luck I lap a wicket, And turn'd a neuk. But by that health, I've got a share o't, A tentier way: Then fareweel folly, hide and hair o't, For ance and aye. SENT TO A GENTLEMAN WHOM HE HAD OFFENDED. THE friend whom wild from wisdom's way The fumes of wine infuriate send (Not moony madness more astray); Who but deplores that hapless friend? POEM ON LIFE. Mine was th' insensate frenzied part, 'Tis thine to pity and forgive. 19 POEM ON LIFE. ADDRESSED TO COLONEL DE PEYSTER, DUMFPIES, 1796. My honour'd colonel, deep I feel The steep Parnassus, Surrounded thus by bolus pill, And potion glasses. O, what a canty warld were it, Would pain, and care, and sickness spare it; As they deserve: (And aye a rowth, roast beef and claret; Syne wha wad starve?) Dame Life, tho' fiction out may trick her, I've found her still, Aye wav'ring like the willow wicker, Then that curst carmagnole, auld Satan, Wi' felon ire; Syne, whip! his tail ye'll ne'er cast saut on, Ah Nick! ah Nick! it isna fair, Syne weave, unseen, thy spider snare Poor man, the flie, aft bizzies by, Already in thy fancy's eye, Thy sicker treasure. Soon heels-o'er-gowdy! in he gangs, And murd'ring wrestle, As, dangling in the wind, he hangs But lest you think I am uncivil, To plague you with this draunting drivel, I quat my pen : The Lord preserve us frae the devil! Amen! amen! ΤΟ ROBERT GRAHAM, ESQ. OF FINTRY, ON RECEIVING A FAVOUR. I CALL no goddess to inspire my strains, EPITAPH....A GRACE. For boons recorded, goodness ever new, Thou orb of day! thou other paler light! EPITAPH ON A FRIEND. AN honest man here lies at rest, A GRACE BEFORE DINNER. O THOU, who kindly dost provide We bless thee, God of Nature wide, And, if it please thee, Heavenly Guide, 'But whether granted, or denied, VOL. II. Amen! C 21 A VERSE COMPOSED AND REPEATED BY BURNS, TO THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE, ON TAKING LEAVE AT A PLACE IN THE HIGHLANDS, WHERE HE HAD BEEN HOSPITABLY ENTER- WHEN death's dark stream I ferry o'er, INSCRIPTION TO THE MEMORY OF HERE LIES ROBERT FERGUSSON, POET, Born, September 5th, 1751-Died, 15th October, 1774. No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay, 'No storied urn nor animated bust,' This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust. Το ANSWER TO VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE POET BY THE GUIDWIFE OF WAUCHOPE-HOUSE. GUIDWIFE, I MIND it weel, in early date, When I was beardless, young and blate, |