Poems of Robert Burns Read online

  Thou king o’ grain!

  On thee aft Scotland chows her cood,

  In souple scones, the wale o’ food!

  Or tumbling in the boiling flood

  Wi’ kail an’ beef;

  But when thou pours thy strong heart’s blood,

  There thou shines chief.

  Food fills the wame, an’ keeps us livin;

  Tho’ life’s a gift no worth receivin,

  When heavy-dragg’d wi’ pine an’ grievin;

  But oil’d by thee,

  The wheels o’ life gae down-hill, scrievin,

  Wi’ rattlin glee.

  Thou clears the head o’ doited Lear,

  Thou chears the heart o’ drooping Care;

  Thou strings the nerves o’ Labor-sair,

  At’s weary toil;

  Thou even brightens dark Despair,

  Wi’ gloomy smile.

  Aft, clad in massy, siller weed,

  Wi’ Gentles thou erects thy head;

  Yet humbly kind, in time o’ need,

  The poor man’s wine;

  His wee drap pirratch or his bread,

  Thou kitchens fine.

  Thou art the life o’ public haunts;

  But thee, what were our fairs and rants?

  Ev’n godly meetings o’ the saunts,

  By thee inspir’d,

  When gaping they besiege the tents,

  Are doubly fir’d.

  That merry night we get the corn in,

  O sweetly, then, thou reams the horn in!

  Or reekan on a New-year-mornin

  In cog or bicker,

  An’ just a wee drap sp’ritual burn in,

  An’ gusty sucker!

  When Vulcan gies his bellys breath,

  An’ Ploughmen gather wi’ their graith,

  O rare! to see thee fizz an’ freath

  I’ the lugget caup!

  Then Burnewin comes on like death

  At ev’ry chap.

  Nae mercy, then, for airn or steel;

  The brawnie, banie, ploughman-chiel

  Brings hard owrehip, wi’ sturdy wheel,

  The strong forehammer,

  Till block an’ studdie ring an’ reel

  Wi’ dinsome clamour.

  When skirling weanies see the light,

  Thou maks the gossips clatter bright,

  How fumbling coofs their dearies slight,

  Wae worth them for’t!

  While healths gae round to him wha, tight,

  Gies famous sport.

  When neebors anger at a plea,

  An’ just as wud as wud can be,

  How easy can the barley-brie

  Cement the quarrel!

  It’s aye the cheapest lawyer’s fee

  To taste the barrel.

  Alake! that e’er my Muse has reason,

  To wyte her countrymen wi’ treason!

  But monie daily weet their weason

  Wi’ liquors nice,

  An’ hardly, in a winter season,

  E’er spier her price.

  Wae worth that Brandy, burnan trash!

  Fell source o’ monie a pain an’ brash!

  Twins monie a poor, doylt, druken hash

  O’ half his days;

  An’ sends, beside, auld Scotland’s cash

  To her warst faes.

  Ye Scots wha wish auld Scotland well,

  Ye chief, to you my tale I tell,

  Poor, plackless devils like mysel,

  It sets you ill,

  Wi’ bitter, dearthfu’ wines to mell,

  Or foreign gill.

  May gravels round his blather wrench,

  An’ gouts torment him, inch by inch,

  Wha twists his gruntle wi’ a glunch

  O’ sour disdain,

  Out owre a glass o’ Whisky-punch

  Wi’ honest men!

  O Whisky! soul o’ plays an’ pranks!

  Accept a Bardie’s gratefu’ thanks!

  When wanting thee, what tuneless cranks

  Are my poor verses!

  Thou comes – they rattle i’ their ranks

  At ither’s arses!

  Thee, Ferintosh! O sadly lost!

  Scotland lament frae coast to coast!

  Now colic-grips, an’ barkin hoast,

  May kill us a’;

  For loyal Forbes’ charter’d boast

  Is ta’en awa!

  Thae curst horse-leeches o’ th’ Excise,

  Wha mak the Whisky stells their prize!

  Haud up thy han’ Deil! ance, twice, thrice!

  There, sieze the blinkers!

  An’ bake them up in brunstane pies

  For poor damn’d Drinkers.

  Fortune, if thou’ll but gie me still

  Hale breeks, a scone, an’ whisky gill,

  An’ rowth o’ rhyme to rave at will,

  Tak a’ the rest,

  An’ deal’t about as thy blind skill

  Directs thee best.

  Address to the Deil

  O Prince, O chief of many throned pow’rs,

  That led th’ embattl’d Seraphim to war –

  Milton

  O Thou, whatever title suit thee!

  Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie!

  Wha in yon cavern grim an’ sootie,

  Clos’d under hatches,

  Spairges about the brunstane cootie,

  To scaud poor wretches!

  Hear me, auld Hangie, for a wee,

  An’ let poor, damned bodies bee;

  I’m sure sma’ pleasure it can gie,

  Ev’n to a deil,

  To skelp an’ scaud poor dogs like me,

  An’ hear us squeel!

  Great is thy pow’r, an’ great thy fame;

  Far kend an’ noted is thy name;

  An’ tho’ yon lowan heugh’s thy hame,

  Thou travels far;

  An’ faith! thou’s neither lag nor lame,

  Nor blate nor scaur.

  Whyles, ranging like a roaran lion,

  For prey, a’ holes an’ corners tryin;

  Whyles, on the strong-wing’d tempest flyin,

  Tirlan the kirks;

  Whyles, in the human bosom pryin,

  Unseen thou lurks.

  I’ve heard my rev’rend Graunie say,

  In lanely glens ye like to stray;

  Or where auld, ruin’d castles, gray,

  Nod to the moon,

  Ye fright the nightly wand’rer’s way,

  Wi’ eldritch croon.

  When twilight did my Graunie summon,

  To say her prayers, douse, honest woman!

  Aft ‘yont the dyke she’s heard you bumman,

  Wi’ eerie drone;

  Or, rustling, thro’ the boortries coman,

  Wi’ heavy groan.

  Ae dreary, windy, winter night,

  The stars shot down wi’ sklentan light,

  Wi’ you, myself, I gat a fright,

  Ayont the lough;

  Ye, like a rass-buss, stood in sight,

  Wi’ waving sugh.

  The cudgel in my nieve did shake,

  Each bristl’d hair stood like a stake,

  When wi’ an eldritch, stoor quaick, quaick,

  Amang the springs,

  Awa ye squatter’d like a drake,

  On whistling wings.

  Let Warlocks grim, an’ wither’d Hags,

  Tell how wi’ you on ragweed nags,

  They skim the muirs an’ dizzy crags,

  Wi’ wicked speed;

  And in kirk-yards renew their leagues,

  Owre howcket dead.

  Thence, countra wives, wi’ toil an’ pain,

  May plunge an’ plunge the kirn in vain;

  For Oh! the yellow treasure’s taen

  By witching skill;

  An’ dawtet, twal-pint Hawkie’s gane

  As yell’s the bill.

  Thence, mystic knots mak great abuse,

  On Young-Guidmen, fond, keen a
n’ croose;

  When the best wark-lume i’ the house,

  By cantraip wit,

  Is instant made no worth a louse,

  Just at the bit.

  When thowes dissolve the snawy hoord,

  An’ float the jinglan icy boord,

  Then water-kelpies haunt the foord,

  By your direction,

  An’ nighted trav’llers are allur’d

  To their destruction.

  An’ aft your moss-traversing spunkies

  Decoy the wight that late an’ drunk is:

  The bleezan, curst, mischievous monkies

  Delude his eyes,

  Till in some miry slough he sunk is,

  Ne’er mair to rise.

  When Mason’s mystic word an’ grip,

  In storms an’ tempests raise you up,

  Some cock or cat, your rage maun stop,

  Or, strange to tell!

  The youngest brother ye wad whip

  Aff straught to Hell.

  Lang syne in Eden’s bonie yard,

  When youthfu’ lovers first were pair’d,

  An’ all the Soul of Love they shar’d,

  The raptur’d hour,

  Sweet on the fragrant, flow’ry swaird,

  In shady bow’r.

  Then you, ye auld, snick-drawing dog!

  Ye cam to Paradise incog,

  An’ play’d on man a cursed brogue,

  (Black be your fa’!)

  An’ gied the infant warld a shog,

  ’Maist ruin’d a’.

  D’ye mind that day, when in a bizz,

  Wi’ reeket duds, an’ reestet gizz,

  Ye did present your smoutie phiz,

  ’Mang better folk,

  An’ sklented on the man of Uzz,

  Your spitefu’ joke?

  An how ye gat him i’ your thrall,

  An’ brak him out o’ house an’ hal’,

  While scabs an’ botches did him gall,

  Wi’ bitter claw,

  An’ lows’d his ill-tongu’d, wicked scrawl

  Was warst ava?

  But a’ your doings to rehearse,

  Your wily snares an’ fechtin fierce,

  Sin’ that day ∗ Michael did you pierce,

  Down to this time,

  Wad ding a Lallan tongue, or Erse,

  In Prose or Rhyme.

  An’ now, auld Cloots, I ken ye’re thinkan,

  A certain Bardie’s rantin, drinkin,

  Some luckless hour will send him linkan,

  To your black pit;

  But faith! he’ll turn a corner jinkan,

  An’ cheat you yet.

  But fare-you-weel, auld Nickie-ben!

  O wad ye tak a thought an’ men’!

  Ye aiblens might – I dinna ken –

  Still hae a stake –

  I’m wae to think upo’ yon den,

  Ev’n for your sake!

  Extempore to Gavin Hamilton. Stanzas on Naething

  To you, Sir, this summons I’ve sent,

  Pray, whip till the pownie is fraething;

  But if you demand what I want,

  I honestly answer you – naething. –

  Ne’er scorn a poor Poet like me,

  For idly just living and breathing,

  While people of every degree

  Are busy employed about – naething. –

  Poor Centum per centum may fast,

  And grumble his hurdies their claithing;

  He’ll find, when the balance is cast,

  He’s gane to the devil for – naething. –

  The Courtier cringes and bows,

  Ambition has likewise its plaything;

  A Coronet beams on his brows,

  And what is a Coronet? – naething. –

  Some quarrel the Presbyter gown,

  Some quarrel Episcopal graithing,

  But every good fellow will own

  Their quarrel is all about – naething. –

  The lover may sparkle and glow,

  Approaching his bonie bit gay thing;

  But marriage will soon let him know,

  He’s gotten a buskit up naething. –

  The Poet may jingle and rhyme,

  In hopes of a laureate wreathing,

  And when he has wasted his time,

  He’s kindly rewarded with naething. –

  The thundering bully may rage,

  And swagger and swear like a heathen;

  But collar him fast, I’ll engage

  You’ll find that his courage is naething. –

  Last night with a feminine Whig,

  A Poet she could na put faith in,

  But soon we grew lovingly big,

  I taught her, her terrors were naething. –

  Her Whigship was wonderful pleased,

  But charmingly tickled wi’ ae thing;

  Her fingers I lovingly squeezed,

  And kiss’d her and promised her – naething. –

  The priest anathemas may threat,

  Predicament, Sir, that we’re baith in;

  But when honor’s reveille is beat,

  The holy artillery’s naething. –

  And now I must mount on the wave,

  My voyage perhaps there is death in;

  But what of a watery grave!

  The drowning a Poet is naething. –

  And now as grim death’s in my thought,

  To you, Sir, I make this bequeathing:

  My service as long as ye’ve ought,

  And my friendship, by God, when ye’ve naething. –

  To a Mountain Daisy On Turning One Down with the Plough in April – 1786

  Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow’r,

  Thou’s met me in an evil hour;

  For I maun crush amang the stoure

  Thy slender stem:

  To spare thee now is past my pow’r,

  Thou bonie gem.

  Alas! it’s no thy neebor sweet,

  The bonie lark, companion meet!

  Bending thee ‘mang the dewy weet!

  Wi’ speckl’d breast,

  When upward-springing, blythe, to greet

  The purpling East.

  Cauld blew the bitter-biting North

  Upon thy early, humble birth;

  Yet chearfully thou glinted forth

  Amid the storm,

  Scarce rear’d above the Parent-earth

  Thy tender form.

  The flaunting flow’rs our gardens yield,

  High-shelt’ring woods and wa’s maun shield,

  But thou, beneath the random bield

  O’ clod or stane,

  Adorns the histie stibble-field,

  Unseen, alane.

  There, in thy scanty mantle clad,

  Thy snawy bosom sun-ward spread,

  Thou lifts thy unassuming head

  In humble guise;

  But now the share uptears thy bed,

  And low thou lies!

  Such is the fate of artless Maid,

  Sweet flow’ret of the rural shade!

  By love’s simplicity betray’d,

  And guileless trust,

  Till she, like thee, all soil’d, is laid

  Low i’ the dust.

  Such is the fate of simple Bard,

  On life’s rough ocean luckless starr’d!

  Unskilful he to note the card

  Of prudent lore,

  Till billows rage, and gales blow hard,

  And whelm him o’er!

  Such fate to suff’ring worth is giv’n,

  Who long with wants and woes has striv’n,

  By human pride or cunning driv’n

  To mis’ry’s brink,

  Till wrench’d of every stay but Heav’n,

  He, ruin’d, sink!

  Ev’n thou who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate;

  That fate is thine – no distant date;

  Stern Ruin’s plough-share drives, elate,

  Full on thy bloom,

  Ti
ll crush’d beneath the furrow’s weight,

  Shall be thy doom!

  Epistle to a Young Friend May – 1786

  I lang hae thought, my youthfu’ friend,

  A something to have sent you,