EPISTLES IN VERSE. TO J. LAPRAIK. Sept. 13th, 1785. GUID speed an' furder to you Johny, The staff o' bread, May ye ne'er want a stoup o' brany To clear your head. May boreas never thresh your rigs, Like drivin' wrack; But may the tapmast grain that wags Come to the sack. I'm bizzie too, an' skelpin' at it, Wi' muckle wark, An' took my jocteleg* an' whatt it, Like ony clark. Jocteleg a knife: It 's now twa month that I 'm your debtor, On holy men, While deil a hair yoursel ye 're better, But let the kirk-folk ring their bells, To help, or roose us, But browster wives* an' whiskie stills, They are the muses. Your friendship sir, I winna quat it, Then han' in nieve some day we 'll knot it, An' witness take, An' when wi' Usquabae we 've wat it It winna break. But if the beast and branks be spar'd An' theckit right, I mean your ingle-side to guard Ae winter night. Then muse-inspirin' aqua-vitæ Shall make us baith sae blythe an' witty, An' be as canty As ye were nine year less than thretty, Sweet ane an' twenty! * Browster wives-Alehouse wives. But stooks are cowpet* wi' the blast, An' quat my chanter; Sae I subscribe mysel in haste, Your's, Rab the Ranter.† TO THE REV. JOHN M.MATH, Inclosing a Copy of Holy Willie's Prayer, which he had requested. Sept. 17th, 1785. While at the stook the shearers cow'r Or in gulravage‡ rinnin scow'r To pass the time, Το you I dedicate the hour In idle rhyme. My musie, tir'd wi' mony a sonnet On gown, an' ban', an' douse black bonnet, Lest they should blame her, An' rouse their holy thunder on it And anathem her. Cowpet-Tumbled over. † Rab the Ranter-It is very probable that the poet thus named himself after the Border Piper, so spiritedly introduced in the popular song of Maggie Lauder: "For I'm a piper to my trade, My name is Rab the Ranter; + Gulravage-Running in a confused, disorderly manner, like boys when leaving school. |