The Complete Works. Robert Burns

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      By toil and famine wore to skin and bone,

      Lies senseless of each tugging bitch’s son.

      O dullness! portion of the truly blest!

      Calm sheltered haven of eternal rest!

      Thy sons ne’er madden in the fierce extremes

      Of fortune’s polar frost, or torrid beams.

      If mantling high she fills the golden cup,

      With sober selfish ease they sip it up;

      Conscious the bounteous meed they well deserve,

      They only wonder “some folks” do not starve.

      The grave sage hern thus easy picks his frog,

      And thinks the mallard a sad worthless dog.

      When disappointment snaps the clue of hope,

      And thro’ disastrous night they darkling grope,

      With deaf endurance sluggishly they bear,

      And just conclude that “fools are fortune’s care.”

      So, heavy, passive to the tempest’s shocks,

      Strong on the sign-post stands the stupid ox.

      Not so the idle muses’ mad-cap train,

      Not such the workings of their moon-struck brain;

      In equanimity they never dwell,

      By turns in soaring heav’n or vaulted hell

      I dread thee, fate, relentless and severe,

      With all a poet’s, husband’s, father’s fear!

      Already one strong hold of hope is lost,

      Glencairn, the truly noble, lies in dust;

      (Fled, like the sun eclips’d as noon appears,

      And left us darkling in a world of tears:)

      O! hear my ardent, grateful, selfish pray’r!—

      Fintray, my other stay, long bless and spare!

      Thro’ a long life his hopes and wishes crown;

      And bright in cloudless skies his sun go down!

      May bliss domestic smooth his private path;

      Give energy to life; and soothe his latest breath,

      With many a filial tear circling the bed of death!

      CXXVIII. TO ROBERT GRAHAM, ESQ., OF FINTRAY. ON RECEIVING A FAVOUR

      [Graham of Fintray not only obtained for the poet the appointment in Excise, which, while he lived in Edinburgh, he desired, but he also removed him, as he wished, to a better district; and when imputations were thrown out against his loyalty, he defended him with obstinate and successful eloquence. Fintray did all that was done to raise Burns out of the toiling humility of his condition, and enable him to serve the muse without fear of want.]

      CXXIX. A VISION

      [This Vision of Liberty descended on Burns among the magnificent ruins of the College of Lincluden, which stand on the junction of the Cluden and the Nith, a short mile above Dumfries. He gave us the Vision; perhaps, he dared not in those yeasty times venture on the song, which his secret visitant poured from her lips. The scene is chiefly copied from nature: the swellings of the Nith, the howling of the fox on the hill, and the cry of the owl, unite at times with the natural beauty of the spot, and give it life and voice. These ruins were a favourite haunt of the poet.]

      CXXX. TO JOHN MAXWELL OF TERRAUGHTY, ON HIS BIRTHDAY

      [John Maxwell of Terraughty and Munshes, to whom these verses are addressed, though descended from the Earls of Nithsdale, cared little about lineage, and claimed merit only from a judgment sound and clear—a knowledge of business which penetrated into all the concerns of life, and a skill in handling the most difficult subjects, which was considered unrivalled. Under an austere manner, he hid much kindness of heart, and was in a fair way of doing an act of gentleness when giving a refusal. He loved to meet Burns: not that he either cared for or comprehended poetry; but he was pleased with his knowledge of human nature, and with the keen and piercing remarks in which he indulged. He was seventy-one years old when these verses were written, and survived the poet twenty years.]