=Charles Churchill= (1731-1764). "The Prophecy of Famine"; "The Rosciad." =James Beattie= (1735-1803). "The Minstrel." =Robert Fergusson= (1750-1774). Short Scottish poems. =Thomas Chatterton= (1752-1770). "Poems of Thomas Rowlie"; short poems. =George Crabbe= (1754-1832). "Tales of the Hall"; "The Village"; "The Parish Register"; "Tales in Verse." =William Blake= (1757-1827). "Songs of Innocence"; "Songs of Experience"; "Poetical Sketches." =Robert Burns= (1759-1796). See biographical note, page 111. Robert Burns. THE COTTER'S{1} SATURDAY NIGHT. INSCRIBED TO R. AIKEN, ESQ.{2} Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short but simple annals of the Poor.{3}--_Gray._ My loved, my honored, much respected friend! No mercenary bard his homage pays; With honest pride, I scorn each selfish end, My dearest meed, a friend's esteem and praise: To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays,{4} The lowly train{5} in life's sequestered scene; The native feelings strong, the guileless ways; What Aiken in a cottage would have been; Ah! though his worth unknown, far happier there I ween. November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh;{6} The short'ning winter-day is near a close; The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh; The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose; The toil-worn Cotter frae his labor goes,-- This night his weekly moil is at an end,-- Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes, Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend, And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend.{7} At length his lonely cot appears in view, Beneath the shelter of an aged tree; Th' expectant wee things toddlin', stacher thro' To meet their dad, wi' flichterin noise an' glee. His wee bit ingle, blinkin' bonnily, His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wine's smile, The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Does a' his weary carking cares beguile, An' makes him quite forget his labor an' his toil.{8} Belyve, the elder bairns{9} come drapping in, At service out, amang the farmers roun'; Some ca'{10} the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin A cannie errand to a neibor{11} town: Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e, Comes hame, perhaps, to shew a braw new gown, Or deposit{12} her sair-won penny-fee,{13} To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.