My morning raise sae clear and fair,
I thought sair storms wad never
Bedew the scene; but grief and care
In wildest fury hae made bare

My peace, my hope, for ever!

You think I'm glad; oh, I pay weel
For a' the joy I borrow,
In solitude-then, then I feel
I canna to myself conceal
My deeply-ranklin' sorrow.

Farewell within thy bosom free
A sigh may whiles awaken;
A tear may wet thy laughin' e’e,
For Scotia's son-ance gay like thee-
Now hopeless, comfortless, forsaken !

THE FIRST SIX VERSES OF THE NINETIETH

PSALM.

THOU, the first, the greatest friend
Of all the human race!

Whose strong right hand has ever been
Their stay and dwelling-place!

Before the mountains heaved their heads
Beneath Thy forming hand,

Before this ponderous globe itself
Arose at Thy command;

That Power which raised and still upholds

This universal frame,

From countless, unbeginning time,

Was ever still the same.

Those mighty periods of years

Which seem to us so vast,
Appear no more before Thy sight
Than yesterday that's past.

Thou givest the word: Thy creature, man,
Is to existence brought;
Again Thou say'st, "Ye sons of men,
Return ye into nought!"

Thou layest them, with all their cares,
In everlasting sleep;

As with a flood Thou tak'st them off
With overwhelming sweep.

They flourish like the morning flower,
In beauty's pride array'd;
But long ere night cut down, it lies
All wither'd and decay'd.

TO A YOUNG LADY IN CHURCH.

For idle texts pursue;

AIR maid, you need not take the hint,

"Twas guilty sinners that he meant, Not angels such as you!

TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY,

ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH IN

APRIL 1786.

EE, modest, crimson-tippèd flower,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;

WE

For I maun crush amang the stoure

Thy slender stem:

To spare thee now is past my power,

Thou bonny gem.

Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet,
The bonny lark, companion meet,
Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet,

Wi' speckled breast,

When upward springing, blithe, to greet
The purpling east

Cauld blew the bitter-biting north
Upon thy early, humble, birth;
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth

Amid the storm,

Scarce rear'd above the parent earth
Thy tender form.

The flaunting flowers our gardens yield,
High sheltering 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 snawie 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 floweret 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 suffering worth is given,
Who long with wants and woes has striven,
By human pride or cunning driven,

To misery's brink,

Till, wrench'd of every stay but Heaven,
He, ruin'd, sink!

Even thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate,
That fate is thine-no distant date;
Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives, elate,
Full on thy bloom,

Till, crush'd beneath the furrow's weight,

Shall be thy doom!

A1

ODE TO RUIN.

LL hail! inexorable lord!

At whose destruction-breathing word The mightiest empires fall!

Thy cruel, woe-delighted train,
The ministers of grief and pain,
A sullen welcome, all !

With stern-resolved, despairing eye,
I see each ainèd dart ;

For one has cut my dearest tie,
And quivers in my heart.

Then lowering, and pouring,
The storm no more I dread;
Though thick'ning and black'ning,
Round my devoted head.

And thou grim power, by life abhorr'd,
While life a pleasure can afford,
Oh hear a wretch's prayer!
No more I shrink appall'd, afraid;
I court, I beg thy friendly aid
To close this scene of care!

When shall my soul, in silent peace,
Resign life's joyless day:

My weary heart its throbbings cease,
Cold mouldering in the clay?

No fear more, no tear more,
To stain ny lifeless face;
Enclasped, and grasped
Within thy cold embrace !