A wee bit o' Burns

[Penny Tray]

O, wert thou in the cauld blast
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee.

*O, WERT THOU IN THE CAULD BLAST

[Penny Tray]

That hackney’d judge of human life,
The preacher and the King,
Observes: ‘The man that gets a wife
He gets a noble thing.’

*ON MARRIAGE

[Penny Tray]

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought man!
Believe me, Happiness is shy,
And comes not ay when sought, man!

*HERE’S A BOTTLE

[Penny Tray]

I never barked when out of season,
I never bit without a reason;
I ne’er insulted weaker brother,
Nor wronged by force or fraud another.
We brutes are placed a rank below;
Happy for man could he say so.

*ON A DOG OF LORD EGLINTON’S

[Penny Tray]

When first I saw fair Jeanie’s face,
I couldna tell what ail’d me:
My heart went fluttering pit-a-pat,
My een they almost fail’d me.
She’s aye sae neat, sae trim, sae tight,
All grace does round her hover!
Ae look deprived me o’ my heart,
And I became her lover.

*WHEN FIRST I SAW

[Penny Tray]

Some books are lies frae end to end.
And some great lies were never penn’d;
Ev’n ministers, they hae been kenn’d,
In holy rapture,
A rousing whid at times to vend,
And nail’t wi' scripture.

*DEATH AND DOCTOR HORNBOOK

[Penny Tray]

When sometimes by my labour, I earn a little money,
Some unforeseen misfortune comes gen’rally upon me,
Mischance, mistake, or by neglect, or my good-natur’d folly,
But, come what will, I’ve sworn it still, I’ll ne’er be melancholy.

*MY FATHER WAS A FARMER

[Penny Tray]

See Social Life and Glee sit down,
All joyous and unthinking,
Till, quite transmugrif’d they’re grown
Debauchery and Drinking.

*ADDRESS TO THE UNCO GUID

[Penny Tray]

It’s hardly in a body’s pow’r,
To keep, at times, frae being sour,
To see how things are shar’d;
How best o’ chiels are whiles in want,
While coofs on countless thousands rant,
An ken na how to wair’t.

*EPISTLE TO DAVIE, A BROTHER POET

[Penny Tray]

Here Holy Willie’s sair worn clay
Taks up its last abode;
His saul has ta’en some other way –
I fear, the left-hand road.

*EPITAPH ON HOLY WILLIE

[Penny Tray]

Gie me ae spark o’ Nature’s fire,
That’s a’ the learning I desire;
Then, tho’ I drudge thro’ dub an’ mire
At pleugh or cart,
My Muse, tho’ hamely in attire,
May touch the heart.

EPISTLE TO J. LAPRAIK

[Penny Tray]

Welcome my bonie, sweet, wee dochter!
Tho’ ye come here a wee unsought for,
And tho’ your comin’ I hae fought for,
Baith kirk and queir;
Yet, by my faith, ye’re no’ unwrought for –
That I shall swear!

*A POET’S WELCOME TO HIS LOVE-BEGOTTEN DAUGHTER