The cruel powers reject the prayer
I hourly mak for thee;
Ye Heavens, how great is my despair,
How can I see him die!
THERE'S NAETHIN LIKE THE HONEST NAPPY.
THERE'S naethin like the honest nappy!
e'er see men sae happy,
Or women sonsie, saft an' sappy,
As them wha like to taste the drappie
I've seen me daez't upon a time;
I scarce could wink or see a styme;
Just ae hauf muchkin does me prime,
Ought less is little,
Then back I rattle on the rhyme
As gleg's a whittle !
SPOKEN BY MR. WOODS, ON HIS BENEFIT NIGHT,
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1787.
WHEN by a generous public's kind acclaim,
That dearest meed is granted-honest fame;
When here your favour is the actor's lot,
Nor even the man in private life forgot;
What breast so dead to heav'nly virtue's glow,
But heaves impassion'd with the grateful throe?
Poor is the task to please a barb'rous throng,
It needs no Siddons' power in Southern's song :
But here an ancient nation, fam'd afar
For genius, learning high, as great in war-
Hail, Caledonia! name for ever dear!
Before whose sons I'm honour'd to appear!
Where every science, every nobler art—
That can inform the mind, or mend the heart,
Is known; as grateful nations oft have found,
Far as the rude barbarian marks the bound.
Philosophy, no idle, pedant dream,
Here holds her search, by heaven-taught Reason's
Here History paints with elegance and force,
The tide of Empire's fluctuating course;
Here Douglas forms wild Shakespeare into plan,
And Harley rouses all the god in man.
When well-form'd taste, and sparkling wit unite,
With manly lore, or female beauty bright,
(Beauty, where faultless symmetry and grace,
Can only charm us in the second place),
Witness my heart, how oft with panting fear,
As on this night, I've met these judges here!
But still the hope Experience taught to live,
Equal to judge—you're candid to forgive.
No hundred-headed Riot here we meet,
With decency and law beneath his feet,
Nor Insolence assumes fair Freedom's name ;
Like Caledonians, you applaud or blame.
O Thou, dread Power! whose empire-giving hand
Has oft been stretch'd to shield the honour'd land,
Strong may she glow with all her ancient fire;
May every son be worthy of his sire;
Firm may she rise with generous disdain
At Tyranny's, or direr Pleasure's chain;
Still self-dependent in her native shore,
Bold may she brave grim Danger's loudest roar, Till Fate the curtain drop on worlds to be no more.
A POEM HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO G. H. ESQ.
Great nature spoke, observant man obeyed.
LET other heroes boast their scars,
The marks of sturt and strife:
And other Poets sing of wars,
The plagues of human life;
Shame fa' the fun; wi' sword and gun
To slap mankind like lumber !
I sing his name and nobler fame,
Wha multiplies our number.
Great Nature spoke, with air benign,
6 Go on, ye human race!
'This lower world I you resign;
'Be fruitful and increase.
"The liquid fire of strong desire
'I've pour'd it in each bosom ;
'Here, in this hand, does mankind stand,
'And there, is Beauty's blossom!
The Hero of these artless strains,
A lowly Bard was he,
Who sung his rhymes in Coila's plains
With meikle mirth an' glee;
Kind Nature's care had given his share,
Large, of the flaming current ;
And, all devout, he never sought
To stem the sacred torrent.
He felt the powerful, high behest,
Thrill, vital, thro' and thro';
And sought a correspondent breasf,
To give obedience due :
Propitious Powers screen'd the young flow'rs,
From mildews of abortion ;
And lo! the Bard, a great reward,
Has got a double portion !
Auld, cantie Coil may count the day,
As annual it returns,
The third of Libra's equal sway,
That gave another Burns,
With future rhymes, an' other times,
To emulate his sire;
To sing auld Coil in nobler style
With more poetic fire.
Ye Powers of peace, and peaceful song,
Look down with gracious eyes;
And bless auld Coila, large and long,
With multiplying joys.
Long may she stand to prop the land,
The flow'r of ancient nations;
And Burns's spring, her fame to sing,
To endless generations!
THE cats like kitchen;
The dogs like broo;
The lasses like the lads weel,
And th' auld wives too.
And we're a' noddin,
Nid, nid, noddin,
We're a' noddin fou at e'en.
TRAGIC FRAGMENT.
‘ALL devil as I am, a damned wretch,
'A harden'd, stubborn, unrepenting villain,
'Still my heart melts at human wretchedness;
'And with sincere tho' unavailing sighs
'I view the helpless children of distress.
'With tears of indignation I behold th' oppressor
'Rejoicing in the honest man's destruction,
'Whose unsubmitting heart was all his crime.
'Even you, ye helpless crew, I pity you ;
'Ye, whom the seeming good think sin to pity;
'Ye poor, despis'd, abandon'd vagabonds,
'Whom Vice, as usual, has turn'd o'er to Ruin.
‘O but for kind, tho' ill-requited friends,
I had been driven forth like you forlorn,
'The most detested, worthless wretch among you ! 'O injur❜d God! thy goodness has endow'd me 'With talents passing most of my compeers, 'Which I in just proportion have abus'd,
'As far surpassing other common villains,
As Thou in natural parts hadst given me more,'
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