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Per Contra.

Go, Fame, and canter like a filly, Thro' a' the streets and neuks o Killie *, Tell ev'ry social, honest billie To cease his grievin, For yet unskaith'd by Death's gleg gullie, Tam Samson's livin.

 

Divider from 'The Beauties of Burn's Poems' a chapbook printed in Falkirk in 1819

 

A PRAYER,

In the Prospect of Death.

O Thou anknown, Almighty Cause, Of all my hope and fear, In whose dread Presence, ere an hour, Perhaps, I must appear!

If I have wander'd in those paths Of life, I ought to shun, As something loudly in any breast Remonstrates I have done;

Thou knowest thou hast formed me With passions wild and strong, Am list ning to their witching voice; Has often led me wrong.

• KILLIE is a phrase the country-folk sometimes

use for the name of a town in the West.