O Fortune, they hae room to grumble! But he was gleg as onie wumble, That's owre the Sea! Auld, cantie KYLE* may weepers wear, He was her Laureat monie a year, That's owre the Sea. He saw Misfortune's cauld Nor-west Ill may she be ! So, took a birth afore the mast, An' owre the Sea ! To tremble under Fortune's cummock, So, row't his hurdies in a hammock, He ne'er was gien to great misguidin, He dealt it free: The Muse was a' that he took pride in, That's owre the Sea. * "KYLE."-The district of Kyle in Ayrshire. Some editors, in deplorable ignorance, have noted this to mean Kilmarnock ! +"Lang-mustering."-The hyphen here is evidently a printer's error, which was corrected in subsequent editions. Jamaica bodies, use him weel, He wad na wrang'a the vera Deil, Fareweel, my rhyme-composing billie !* I'll toast you in my hindmost gillie, * In the MS.-"Then fare-ye-weel, my rhymin billie A DEDICATION TO G**** H******* Esq. [The poet's connection with Mr. Gavin Hamilton, writer, Mauchline, commenced in the spring of 1784, immediately after the death of his father William Burness, when the family of the deceased removed from Lochlea to the farm of Mossgiel, of which they had obtained a sub-lease from Hamilton, who was principal tenant, under the Earl of Loudoun, the proprietor. The intimacy which sprang up betwixt the poet and his young laird had a marked effect in forming his future career. A strong similarity of taste and sentiment pervaded the minds of both, more particularly in matters of religious faith and practice; and when the latter was placed under the censure of the Kirk-Session of Mauchline for "neglect of public ordinances, and disobedience to the recommendations of the presbytery," the pen of the poet, in his friend's behalf, was wielded with unsparing energy from his own Olympus on the heights of Mossgiel. Satire after satire against Hamilton's alleged enemies, followed each other in close succession, and on these productions chiefly rested the extensive local fame of Burns, prior to the publication of his poems in July, 1786. The present production is generally regarded as one of his best, displaying-as noted by Dr. Currie—– those qualities which his poetical epistles possess," deep insight into human nature, a gay and happy train of reflection, great independence of sentiment, and generosity of heart." One of the couplets which compliments Hamilton as being "The poor man's friend in need, The gentleman in word and deed," had been made use of by the poet before, in referring to the same friend, in a poetical epistle addressed in September, 1785, to a young minister of kindred sentiments in Church matters; and in it Burns excuses himself for cracking his jest at holy men and holy things on the ground that Hamilton, "who has mair honour in his breast than scores of his persecutors," was sair misca'd by them: and then he adds "See him, the poor man's friend in need, The gentleman in word and deed,- And not a muse erect her head To cowe the blellums ? "] EXPECT na, Sir, in this narration, Then when I'm tir'd-and sae are ye, For fear your modesty be hurt. This may do-maun do, Sir, wi' them wha And when I downa yoke a naig, The Poet, some guid Angel help him, The Patron, (Sir, ye maun forgie me, I readily and freely grant, And rascals whyles that do him wrang, But then, nae thanks to him for a' that; * This line was omitted in the Edinburgh Edition (1787), and has been kept out ever since. Morality, thou deadly bane, Thy tens o' thousands thou hast slain! No-stretch a point to catch a plack; Steal thro' the winnock frae a wh-re, No matter-stick to sound believing. Learn three-mile pray'rs, an' half-mile graces, O ye wha leave the springs o' C-lv-n, Ye'll some day squeel in quaking terror! When Vengeance draws the sword in wrath, When Ruin, with his sweeping besom, Your pardon, Sir, for this digression, So Sir, you see 'twas nae daft vapour, |