So wives will gie them bits o' bread, An' bairns greet for them when they're dead. "My poor toop 1-lamb, my son an' heir, O, bid him breed him up wi' care! An' if he live to be a beast, To pit some havins2 in his breast! "An' warn him-what I winna name 4 5 "An' niest, my yowie, silly thing, 6 But ay keep mind to moop an' mell' "And now, my bairns, wi' my last breath, I lea'e my blessin wi' you baith: An' when you think upo' your mither, 66 Now, honest Hughoc, dinna fail, An' bid him burn this cursed tether, This said, poor Mailie turn'd her head, 2 good manners. 3 "An' warn him ay at ridin time" (1786). 4 unmannerly. 7 mix. 5 yowe, ewe. 8 bladder. 998 6 nibble. POOR MAILIE'S ELEGY.1 LAMENT in rhyme, lament in prose, Wi' saut tears trickling down your nose; 2 Past a' remead! The last, sad cape-stane o' his woe's Poor Mailie's dead! It's no the loss o' warl's gear, That could sae bitter draw the tear, Or mak our bardie, dowie, wear The mournin weed: He's lost a friend an' neebor dear, In Mailie dead. Thro' a' the town she trotted by him; A lang half-mile she could descry him; Wi' kindly bleat, when she did spy him, She ran wi' speed: A friend mair faithfu' ne'er cam nigh him, Than Mailie dead. I wat she was a sheep o' sense, An' could behave hersel wi' mense: I'll say't, she never brak a fence, 4 5 Thro' thievish greed. 1 Mr. Logie Robertson points out that this elegy is modelled upon the " Epitaph of Habbie Simson, the Piper of Kilbarchan," by Robert Sempill, who was the first to introduce the form of stanza which was made familiar by Ramsay, Fergusson, and Burns. 2 VAR. "Poor Robin's" (MS.); also in other verses. worn with grief. 4 good manners. parlour. 3 5 Or, if he wanders up the howe,1 Her livin image in her yowe Comes bleatin till him, owre the knowe,2 For bits o' bread; An' down the briny pearls rowe 3 4 For Mailie dead. She was nae get o' moorland tips," Wi' tauted ket, an' hairy hips; 6 For her forbears' were brought in ships, 8 Wae worth the man wha first did shape Wi' chokin dread; An' Robin's bonnet wave wi' crape For Mailie dead. 0, a' ye bards on bonie Doon! An' wha on Ayr your chanters tune! Come, join the melancholious croon O' Robin's reed! His heart will never get aboon— 1 dell. His Mailie's dead! 2 knoll. In preparing this "Elegy" for the press, Burns substituted the present sixth verse for the follow ing: : "She was nae get o' runted rams, Wi' woo like goats, and legs like trams : A famous breed; Fairlie was the first place in Ayrshire where William Burnes obtained employment. 4 the young. 7 ancestors. 5 rams. 6 matted fleece. 8 unlucky. THE RIGS O' BARLEY.1 It was upon a Lammas night, The time flew by, wi' tentless heed; The sky was blue, the wind was still, I ken't her heart was a' my ain; Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, etc. I lock'd her in my fond embrace; 1 It has been suggested that Anne Ronald was the heroine of this song; but the poet was not on very intimate terms with her. Anne Rankine (afterwards Mrs. Merry), daughter of a farmer at Adamhill, within two miles of Lochlie, boasted that she was the Annie of this song. But by the moon and stars so bright, Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, etc. I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear; Tho' three times doubl'd fairly— Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, etc. SONG COMPOSED IN AUGUST.1 Now westlin winds and slaught'ring guns 2 Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain, And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night, To muse upon my charmer. If this lyric was suggested and partly sketched out when the poet was in his seventeenth year, we are assured by Mrs. Begg, that at a later period he experienced another love-fit for Peggy Thomson, the charming fillette of Kirkoswald, and proposed to her. It would be then that this composition assumed its existing form. 2 VAR. " 'gor-cock" (version sent to Johnson in 1792). |