ON PASTORAL POETRY.

In Homer's craft Jock Milton thrives;
Eschylus' pen Will Shakspeare drives;
Wee Pope, the knurlin, 'till him rives
Horatian fame;

In thy sweet sang, Barbauld, survives
E'en Sappho's flame.

319

dwarf

But thee, Theocritus, wha matches?
They're no herd's ballats, Maro's catches;
Squire Pope but busks his skinklin patches sparkling
O' heathen tatters:

I pass by hunders, nameless wretches,

That ape their betters.

In this braw age o' wit and lear,
Will nane the Shepherd's whistle mair
Blaw sweetly in its native air

And rural grace;

And wi' the far-famed Grecian share
A rival place?

Yes! there is ane; a Scottish callan

lad

There's ain; come forrit, honest Allan ! forward Thou need na jouk behint the hallan, skulk—door A chiel sae clever;

The teeth o' time may gnaw Tantallan,

But thou's for ever!

Thou paints auld Nature to the nines,
In thy sweet Caledonian lines;

320

ON PASTORAL POETRY.

Nae gowden stream through myrtles twines,
Where Philomel,

While nightly breezes sweep the vines,
Her griefs will tell!

In gowany glens thy burnie strays, daisied
Where bonny lasses bleach their claes;
Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes,
Wi' hawthorns gray,

Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays
At close o' day.

Thy rural loves are Nature's sel';
Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell;
Nae snap conceits; but that sweet spell
O' witchin' love,

That charm that can the strongest quell,
The sternest move.

-brook

groves

floods

THE END.

Bruce to his Men at Bannockburn

Burns to the Gudewife of Wauchope-House

DEATH AND DR. HORNBOOK

Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie
Dedication to Gavin Hamilton, Esq.
Deil's awa' wi' the Exciseman

Elegy on the Death of Robert Ruisseaux

Elegy on the Year 1788
Epigrams, Miscellaneous
Epigrams on Miss Lewars

ii. 97, 98; iii. 212, 222-257

iii. 212

First, ii. 152; Second, ii. 247; Third, ii. 281; Fourth, ii. 294