Page:Beauties of Burn's poems.pdf/23

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NEW BRIG.
Now hand you there! for faith ye've aid enow,
And muckle mair than ye can mak to through,
And for your Priesthood, I shall say but little,
Corbies and Clergy are a shot right kittle:
But, under favour of your langer beard,
Abuse o' Magistrates might weel be spar'd;
To liken them to your auldwarl's quad,
I must needs say, comparisons are odd.
In Ayr, Wag-wits hae mair can hae a handle
To mouth a Citizen, a term o' scandal;
Nae mair the Council waddles down the street,
In a' the pomp of ignorant conceit;
Men wha grew wise priggin owre hops and raisins,
Or gather'd lib'ral views in bonds and seisins.
If hap'ly Knowledge, on a random tramp,
Had shor'd them with a glimmer o' his lamp,
And wad to Common-sense for once betray'd them,
Plain dull Stupidity stept kindly in to aid them.
. . . . . . . . .
What farther clishimaclaver might have been said
What bloody wars, if Sp'rits had blood to shed,
No man can tell; but all before their sight,
A fairy train appear'd in order bright!
Adown the glittering stream they featly danc'd
Bright to the moon their various dresses glanc'd
While arts of minstrelsy among then rung.
And soul-enobling Bards heroic dirties sung!
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$O had M'Lauchlan^[1], thairm-inspiring Sage,
Been there to hear this heavenly band engage,
When thro' his dear Strathspeys they bore with Highland rage!

1. A well-known Professor of Scottish Music.