fall,

65 Ne'er roughened by those cataracts and brakes

That humor interposed too often makes;
All this still legible in memory's page,
And still to be so to my latest age,
Adds joy to duty, makes me glad to pay 70
Such honors to thee as my numbers may;
Perhaps a frail memorial, but sincere,
Not scorned in heaven, though little
noticed here.

Could Time, his flight reversed, restore the hours,

When, playing with thy vesture's tissued flowers,

The violet, the pink, and jassamine,

75

I pricked them into paper with a pin (And thou wast happier than myself the while,

Would softly speak, and stroke my head and smile),

Could those few pleasant days again.

The son of parents passed into the skies! And now, farewell-Time unrevoked has

run

His wonted course, yet what I wished is done.

By contemplation's help, not sought in vain,

I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again;

5

I see thee daily weaker grow; 'Twas my distress that brought thee low, My Mary!

115

To have renewed the joys that once were mine,

Without the sin of violating thine:

I therefore purpose not, or dream,
Descanting on his fate,
To give the melancholy theme
A more enduring date:

But misery still delights to trace

Its semblance in another's case.

No voice divine the storm allayed,
No light propitious shone,
When, snatched from all effectual aid,
We perished, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.

ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796)

From LINES TO JOHN LAPRAIK

I am nae poet, in a sense,
But just a rhymer like by chance,
An' hae to learning nae pretence;
Yet what the matter?
Whene'er my Muse does on me glance,
I jingle at her.

Your critic-folk may cock their nose,
And say, "How can you e'er propose,
You wha ken hardly verse frae prose,
To mak a sang?"

But, by your leaves, my learnèd foes, Ye're maybe wrang.

What's a' your jargon o' your schools, Your Latin names for horns an' stools? If honest Nature made you fools,

What sairs1 your grammars?

55

60

65

50

55

60

3 idiots.

4 oxen.

7 puddle.

22 rip.

• one.

20 courtesy. 24 if.