FAIR ELIZA.

Burns composed this song to a Highland air which he found in Macdonald's collection. In the original manuscript, the name of the heroine is Rabina, which he is understood to have afterwards changed to Eliza, for reasons of taste. Mr. Stenhouse relates, that the verses were designed to embody the passion of a Mr. Hunter, a friend of the poet, towards a Rabina of real life, who, it would appear, was loved in vain, for the lover went to the West Indies, and there died soon after his arrival.

TURN again, thou fair Eliza,

Ae kind blink before we part,

Rue on thy despairing lover!

Canst thou break his faithfu' heart?
Turn again, thou fair Eliza;

If to love thy heart denies,
For pity hide the cruel sentence,
Under friendship's kind disguise!

Thee, dear maid, hae I offended?
The offence is loving thee:
Canst thou wreck his peace for ever,
Wha for thine wad gladly die?

While the life beats in my bosom,

Thou shalt mix in ilka throe;
Turn again, thou lovely maiden,
Ae sweet smile on me bestow.

Not the bee upon the blossom,
In the pride o' sunny noon;
Not the little sporting fairy,

All beneath the simmer moon;

Not the poet in the moment
Fancy lightens on his e'e,

Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture
That thy presence gies to me.

O LUVE WILL VENTURE IN.

TUNE-The Posie.

O LUVE will venture in where it daurna weel

be seen;

O luve will venture in where wisdom ance has

been;

But I will down yon river rove, among the

wood sae green

And a' to pu' a posie to my ain dear May.

The primrose I will pu', the firstling o' the

year,

And I will pu' the pink, the emblem o' my

dear ;

For she's the pink o' womankind, and blooms without a peer

And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.

I'll pu' the budding rose, when Phoebus peeps in view,

For it's like a baumy kiss o' her sweet bonny

mou';

The hyacinth for constancy, wi' its unchanging blue

And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.

The lily it is pure, and the lily it is fair, And in her lovely bosom I'll place the lily there;

The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.

The hawthorn I will pu', wi' its locks o' siller gray,

Where, like an aged man, it stands at break

of day;

But the songster's nest within the bush I winna

tak away

And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.

The woodbine I will pu' when the e'ening-star

is near,

And the diamond draps o' dew shall be her e'en sae clear;

The violet's for modesty, which weel she

fa's to wear

has a right

And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.

I'll tie the posie round wi' the silken band o'

luve,

And I'll place it in her breast, and I'll swear by a' above,

That to my latest draught o' life the band shall ne'er remove

And this shall be a posie to my ain dear May.

THE BANKS OF DOON.

TUNE-Caledonian Hunt's Delight.

YE banks and braes o' bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair;

How can ye chant, ye little birds,

And I sae weary fu'o' care!

Thou'lt break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons through the flowering thorn; Thou minds me o' departed joys,

Aft hae I roved by bonny Doon,

To see the rose and woodbine twine;
And ilka bird sang o' its luve,
And fondly sae did I o' mine.
Wi' lightsome heart I pou'd a rose,
Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree;
And my fause luver stole my rose,
But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.1

WILLIE WASTLE dwalt on Tweed,

The spot they called it Linkum-doddie;

1 This, it will be observed, is a second version of the ballad which Burns produced in 1787, upon the sad fate of Miss Peggy K Although none of Burns's songs has been more popular than this, one cannot but regret its superseding so entirely the original ballad, which in touching simplicity of expression is certainly much superior.