My Muse, once more, thy aid I humbly claim; Refuse not now to grace my rustic lays. Johnston or Pope might well befit the theme Or Grecian bards, who ever merit praise. How dares my humble hand assume so high? No common character inspires my song, His growing fame long since has reach’d the sky: All I can say but does his virtues wrong; Let then my blund’ring pen in silence rest; Lo, silent admiration paints them best. AN EPISTLE TO _Mr. ROBERT BURNS_. Fairfa’ the honest rustic swain, The pride o’ a’ our Scottish plain; Thou gi’es us joy to hear thy strain, And notes sae sweet; Old Ramsay’s shade, reviv’d again, In thee we greet. Lov’d Thallia, that delightful muse, Seem’d long shut up as a recluse: To all she did her aid refuse, Since Allan’s day, Till Burns arose, then did she choose To grace his lay. To hear thy song, all ranks desire; Sae well thou strik’st the dormant lyre. Apollo, wi’ poetic fire, Thy breast did warm, An’ critics silently admire Thy art to charm. Cæsar an’ Luath weel can speak; ’Tis pity e’er their gabs should steek: They into human nature keek, An’ knots unravel; To hear their lectures ance a week, Ten miles I’d travel. Thy dedication to G---- H----, In unco bonny, hamespun speech, Wi’ winsome glee the heart can teach A better lesson, Than servile bards wha fawn an’ fleech, Like beggar’s messin. When slighted love becomes thy theme, An’ woman’s faithless vows you blame, With so much pathos you exclaim, In your Lament, But glanc’d by the most frigid dame, She wad relent. The daisy too, you sing wi’ skill; An’ weel ye praise the whisky gill. In vain I blunt my feckless quill, Your fame to raise, While echo sounds, frae ilka hill, To Burns’s praise. Did Addison or Pope but hear, Or Sam, that critic most severe, A plough-boy sing, wi’ throat sae clear, They, in a rage, Their works wad a’ in pieces tear An’ curse your page. If I should strain my rupy throat, To raise thy praise wi’ swelling note, My rude, unpolish’d strokes wad blot Thy brilliant shine, An’ ev’ry passage I would quote Seem less sublime. The task I’ll drop; wi’ heart sincere To heav’n present a humble prayer, That a’ the blessings mortals share May be, by turns, Dispens’d with an indulgent care To Robert Burns. TO _MY AUNTY_. My ever dear an’ worthy aunty, Wha ne’er o’ wit nor lear was vaunty; Yet often could, like honest grandam, Unravel dreams; an’ whiles, at random, Did truth in mystic terms declare, Which made us aft wi’ wonder stare.