An anxious e'e I never throws Behint my lug, or by my nose; Sworn foe to Sorrow, Care, and Prose, I rhyme away. O ye douce folk, that live by rule, Grave, tideless-blooded, calm and cool, Compar'd wi' you-O fool! fool! fool! How much unlike! Your hearts are just a standing pool, Your lives, a dyke! Nae hair-brain'd, sentimental traces In your unletter'd, nameless faces! In arioso trills and graces Ye never stray, Ye hum away. But gravissimo, solemn basses Ye are sae grave, nae doubt ye're wise; Nae ferly tho' ye do despise The hairum-scairum ram-stam boys, The rattlin squad: I see you upward cast your eyes— -Ye ken the road. Whilst I-but I shall haud me there Wi' you I'll scarce gang ony whereThen, Jamie, I shall say nae mair, But quat my sang, Content wi' You to mak a pair, Whare'er I gang. A DREAM. "Thoughts, words, and deeds, the Statute blames with "But surely DREAMS were ne'er indicted TREASON." [On reading, in the public papers, the Laureat's Ode, with the other parade of June 4. 1786, the Author was no sooner dropt asleep, than he imagined himself transported to the Birth-day Levee; and in his dreaming fancy, made the following Address]. I. GUID-MORNIN to your Majesty, May heav'n augment your blisses, On ev'ry new Birth-day ye see, A humble Poet wishes! My Bardship here, at your Levee, Is sure an uncouth sight to see, II. I see ye're complimented thrang, God save the King!' 's a cuckoo sang The Poets, too, a venal gang, Wi' rhymes weel-turn'd and ready, Wad gar you trow ye ne'er do wrang, But ay unerring steady, On sic a day. III. For me before a Monarch's face, Ev'n there I winna flatter ; For neither Pension, Post, nor Place, So, nae reflection on Your Grace, Your Kingship to bespatter; There's monie waur been o' the race, And aiblins ane been better Than you this day. IV. 'Tis very true, my sov'reign King, Your Royal Nest, beneath your wing, Than did ae day. V. Far be't frae me that I aspire Ye've trusted Ministration To chaps, wha, in a barn or byre, Wad better fill'd their station Than courts yon day. |