Poem by Robert Burns

To James Smith

DEAR Smith, the sleeest pawkie thief
That e’er attempted stealth or rief,
Ye surely hae some warlock-breef
    Owre human hearts;
For ne’er a bosom yet was prief
    Against your arts.

For me, I swear by sun an’ moon,
And ev’ry star that blinks aboon,
Ye’ve cost me twenty pair o’ shoon
    Yust gaun to see you;
And ev’ry ither pair that’s done,
    Mair taen I’m wi’ you.

That auld capricious carlin’, Nature,
To mak amends for scrimpit stature,
She’s turn’d you aff, a human creature
    On her first plan,
And in her freaks, on ev’ry feature,
    She’s wrote ‘The Man.’

Just now I’ve taen the fit o’ rhyme,
My barmie noddle’s working prime,
My fancie yerkit up sublime
    Wi’ hasty summon:
Has ye a leisure-moment’s time
    To hear what’s comin’?

Some rhyme a neebor’s name to lash;
Some rhyme (vain thought!) for needfu’ cash;
Some rhyme to court the country clash,
    An’ raise a din;
For me, an aim I never fash;
    I rhyme for fun.

The star that rules my luckless lot,
Has fated me the russet coat,
An’ damn’d my fortune to the groat;
    But, in requit,
Has blest me with a random shot
    O’ country wit.

This while my notion ‘a taen a sklent,
To try my fate in guid, black prent;
But still the mair I’m that way bent,
    Something cries ‘Hoolie!
I red you, honest man, tak tent!
    Ye’ll shaw your folly.

‘There’s ither poets, much your betters,
Far seen in Greek, deep men o’ letters,
Hae thought they had ensured their debtors
    A’ future ages;
Now moths deform in shapeless tatters
    Their unknown pages.’

Then fareweel hopes o’ laurel-boughs,
To garland my poetic brows!
Henceforth I’ll rove where busy ploughs
    Are whistling thrang,
An’ teach the lanely heights an’ howes
    My rustic sang.

I’ll wander on, wi’ tentless heed
How never-halting moments speed,
Till fate shall snap the brittle thread;
    Then, all unknown,
I’ll lay me with th’ inglorious dead,
    Forgot and gone!

But why o’ death begin a tale?
Just now we’re living sound an’ hale;
Then top and maintop crowd the sail,
    Heave Care o’er side I
And large, before Enjoyment’s gale,
    Let’s tak the tide.

This life, sea far’s I understand,
Is a’ enchanted fairy-land,
Where pleasure is the magic wand,
    That, wielded right,
Maks hours like minutes, hand in hand,
    Dance by fu’ light..

The magic wand then let us wield:
For, ance that five-an’-forty’s speel’d,
See, crazy, weary, joyless Eild,
    Wi’ wrinkled face,
Comes hoastin’, hirplin’ owre the field,
    Wi’ creepin’ pace.

When ance life’s day draws near the gloamin’,
Then fareweel vacant careless roamin’;
An’ fareweel cheerfu’ tankards foamin’,
    An’ social noise;
An’ fareweel dear deluding woman,
    The joy of joys!

O life, how pleasant is thy morning,
Young Fancy’s rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution’s lesson scorning,
    We frisk away,
Like schoolboys, at th’ expected warning,
    To joy and play.

We wander there, we wander here,
We eye the rose upon the brier,
Unmindful that the thorn is near,
    Among the leaves:
And tho’ the puny wound appear,
    Short while it grieves.

Some, lucky, find a flow’ry spot,
For which they never toil’d nor swat;
They drink the sweet and eat the fat,
    But care or pain;
And, haply, eye the barren hut
    With high disdain.

With steady aim, some Fortune chase;
Keen hope does ev’ry sinew brace;
Thro’ fair, thro’ foul, they urge the race,
    And seize the prey;
Then cannie, in some cozie place,
    They close the day.

And others, like your humble servan’,
Poor wights !nae rules nor roads observin’,
To right or left, eternal swervin’,
    They zig-zag on;
Till curst with age, obscure an’ starvin’,
    They often groan.

Alas! what bitter toil an’ straining-
But truce wi’ peevish, poor complaining!
Is Fortune’s fickle Luna waning?
    E’en let her gang!
Beneath what light she has remaining,
    Let’s sing our sang.

My pen I here fling to the door,
And kneel ‘Ye Pow’rs!’ and warm implore,
‘Tho’ I should wander Terra o’er,
    In all her climes,
Grant me but this, I ask no more,
    Aye rowth o’ rhymes.

‘Gie dreeping roasts to country lairds,
Till icicles hing frae their beards;
Gie fine braw class to fine life-guards,
    And maids of honour;
And yill an’ whisky gie to cairds,
    Until they sconner.

‘A title, Dempster merits it;
A garter gie to Willie Pitt;
Gie wealth to some be-ledger’d cit,
    In cent per cent;
But gie me real, sterling wit,
    And I’m content.

‘While ye are pleased to keep me hale,
I’ll sit down o’er my scanty meal,
Be’t water-brose, or muslin-kail,
    Wi’ cheerfu’ face,
As lang’s the Muses dinna fail
    To say the grace.’

An anxious e’e I never throws
Behint my lug, or by my nose;
I jouk beneath misfortune’s blows
    As weel’s I may;
Sworn foe to sorrow, care, and prose,
    I rhyme away.

O ye douce folk, that live by rule,
Grave, tideless-blooded, calm, and cool,
Compar’d wi’ you-O fool! fool! fool!
    How much unlike!
Your hearts are just a standing pool,
    Your lives a dyke!

Nae hare-brain’d sentimental traces,
In your unletter’d, nameless faces!
In arioso trills and graces
    Ye never stray,
But gravissimo, solemn basses,
    Ye hum away.

Ye are sae grave, nae doubt ye’re wise;
Nae ferly tho’ ye do despise
The hairum-scairum, ram-stam boys,
    The rattlin’ squad:
I see you upward cast your eyes-
    Ye ken the road.

Whilst I - but I shall haud me there-
Wi’ you I’ll scarce gang ony where-
Then, Jamie, I shall say nae mair,
    But quat my sang,
Content with You to mak a pair,
    Where’er I gang.

1. I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen
2. Gala Water
3. Blythe Was She
4. The Banks of Nith (THE THAMES flows proudly to the sea)
5. Stay My Charmer

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