"All hail! My own inspired bard!
In me thy native Muse regard!
Nor longer mourn thy fate is hard,
Thus poorly low!

I come to give thee such reward
As we bestow.

"Know, the great genius of this land,
Has many a light aërial band,

Who, all beneath his high command,
Harmoniously,

As arts or arms they understand,

Their labours ply.

"They Scotia's race among them share; Some fire the soldier on to dare;

Some rouse the patriot up to bare

Corruption's heart:

Some teach the bard, a darling care,
The tuneful art.

"Mong swelling floods of reeking gore, They, ardent, kindling spirits, pour; Or 'mid the venal senate's roar,

They, sightless, stand,

To mend the honest patriot-lore,

And grace the hand.

"And when the bard, or hoary sage,

Charm or instruct the future age,

They bind the wild, poetic rage

In energy,

Or point the inconclusive page

Full on the
eye.

"Hence Fullarton, the brave and young; Hence Dempster's zeal-inspired tongue; Hence sweet harmonious Beattie sung

His Minstrel' lays;

Or tore, with noble ardour stung,

The sceptic's bays.

"To lower orders are assign'd
The humbler ranks of human-kind,
The rustic bard, the lab'ring hind,
The artisan;

All choose, as various they're inclin'd
The various man.

"When yellow waves the heavy grain, The threat'ning storm some, strongly, rein; Some teach to meliorate the plain,

With tillage-skill;

And some instruct the shepherd-train,
Blythe o'er the hill.

"Some hint the lover's harmless wile;
Some grace the maiden's artless smile;
Some soothe the lab'rer's weary toil,
For humble gains,

And make his cottage-scenes beguile

His cares and pains.

"Some, bounded to a district-space, Explore at large man's infant race, To mark the embryotic trace

Of rustic bard:

And careful note each op'ning grace,
A guide and guard.

"Of these am I-Coila my name;

And this district as mine I claim,

Where once the Campbells, chiefs of fame, Held ruling pow'r :

I mark'd thy embryo-tuneful flame,

Thy natal hour.

"With future hope, I oft would gaze,

Fond, on thy little early ways,

Thy rudely caroll'd, chiming phrase,
In uncouth rhymes,

Fir'd at the simple, artless lays

Of other times

"I saw thee seek the sounding shore,
Delighted with the dashing roar;
Or when the north his fleecy store

Drove through the sky,

I saw grim Nature's visage hoar

Struck thy young eye.

"Or when the deep green-mantled earth Warm cherish'd ev'ry flow'ret's birth, And joy and music pouring forth

In ev'ry grove,

I saw thee eye the general mirth

With boundless love.

"When ripen'd fields, and azure skies, Called forth the reaper's rustling noise, I saw thee leave their evening joys,

And lonely stalk,

To vent thy bosom's swelling rise

In pensive walk.

"When youthful love, warm-blushing, strong, Keen-shivering shot thy nerves along, Those accents, grateful to thy tongue,

Th' adored Name

I taught thee how to pour in song,

To soothe thy flame.

"I saw thy pulse's maddening play,

Wild send thee pleasure's devious way,

Misled by Fancy's meteor-ray,

By passion driven;

But yet the light that led astray

Was light from Heaven.

"I taught thy manners-painting strains,

The loves, the ways of simple swains,
Till now, o'er all my wide domains

Thy fame extends;

And some, the pride of Coila's plains,

Become thy friends.

"Thou canst not learn, nor can I show, To paint with Thomson's landscape glow; Or wake the bosom-melting throe,

With Shenstone's art;

Or pour, with Gray, the moving flow,
Warm on the heart.

"Yet, all beneath the unrivall'd rose,
The lowly daisy sweetly blows;
Tho' large the forest's monarch throws
His army shade,

Yet green the juicy hawthorn grows,
Adown the glade.

"Then never murmur nor repine;
Strive in thy humble sphere to shine;
And, trust me, not Potosi's mine,

Nor king's regard,

Can give a bliss o'ermatching thine,

"And wear thou this," she solemn said,

And bound the holly round my head:

The polish'd leaves and berries red

Did rustling play;

And like a passing thought, she fled

In light away.

HALLOWEEN.1

"Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain,

The simple pleasures of the lowly train;

To me more dear, congenial to my heart,

One native charm, than all the gloss of art."-GOLDSMITH.

(This Poem contains a lively and striking picture of some of the superstitious observances of old Scotland: on Halloween the desire to look into futurity was once all but universal in the north; and the charms and spells which Burns describes, form but a portion of those employed to enable the peasantry to have a peep up the dark vista of the future. The scene is laid on the romantic shores of Ayr, at a farmer's fireside, and the actors in the rustic drama are the whole household, including supernumerary reapers "I never can and bandsmen about to be discharged from the engagements of harvest. help regarding this," says James Hogg, "as rather a trivial poem!"]

UPON that night, when fairies light

On Cassilis Downans' dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;

Or for Colean the rout is ta'en,

Beneath the moon's pale beams;

There, up the Cove, to stray an' rove

Amang the rocks an' streams

To sport that night.

Amang the bonnie winding banks

Where Doon rins, wimplin', clear,

Where Bruce ance rul'd the martial ranks,
An' shook his Carrick spear,

Some merry, friendly, countra folks,

Together did convene,

To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks,

An' haud their Halloween

Fu' blythe that night.

The lasses feat, an' cleanly neat,

Mair braw than when they're fine;

1 Is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands: particularly those aerial people, the Fairies, are said on that night to hold a grand anniversary.

* Certain little, romantic, rocky green hills, in the neighbourhood of the ancient sest of the Earls of Cassilis.

1

* A noted cavern near Colean-house, called the Cove of Colean, which, as well as Cassilis Downans, is famed in country story for being a favourite haunt of fairies.

The famous family of that name, the ancestors of Robert, the great deliverer of his country, were Earls of Carrick.