TO MARY.*

COULD aught of song declare my pains,
Could artful numbers move thee,
The Muse should tell, in labour'd strains,
O Mary, how I love thee!

They who but feign a wounded heart
May teach the lyre to languish ;
But what avails the pride of art,
When wastes the soul with anguish?

Then let the sudden bursting sigh
The heart-felt pang discover;
And in the keen, yet tender eye,
O read th' imploring lover.

For well I know thy gentle mind
Disdains art's gay disguising;
Beyond what fancy e'er refin'd,
The voice of nature prizing.

*This song is inserted in Johnson's Museum, with the name of Burns attached to it.

O LEAVE NOVELS.

O LEAVE novels, ye Mauchline belles, †
Ye're safer at your spinning wheel;

Such witching books are baited hooks

For rakish rooks, like Rob Mossgiel.

Your fine Tom Jones and Grandisons,
They make your youthful fancies reel,
They heat your brains, and fire your veins,
And then you're prey for Rob Mossgiel.

Beware a tongue that's smoothly hung;
A heart that warmly seems to feel;
That feeling heart but acts a part,
'Tis rakish art in Rob Mossgiel.

The frank address, the soft caress,
Are worse than poison'd darts of steel,
The frank address, and politesse,

Are all finesse in Rob Mossgiel.

+ The Mauchline Belles, Burns elsewhere says, (post p. 81,) were Miss Miller, Miss Markland, Miss Smith, Miss Betty --, Miss Morton, and Jane Armour. These verses were written before his marriage.

ADDRESS TO GENERAL DUMOURIER.†

A PARODY ON ROBIN ADAIR.

YOU'RE Welcome to Despots, Dumourier ;
You're welcome to Despots, Dumourier;
How does Dampiere do?

Aye, and Bournonville too?

Why did they not come along with you, Dumourier?

I will fight France with you, Dumourier,

Dumourier:

I will fight France with you,
I will fight France with you,
I will take my chance with you;
By my soul I'll dance a dance with

you,

Then let us fight about, Dumourier;
Then let us fight about, Dumourier:
Then let us fight about,

Till freedom's spark is out,

Dumourier.

Then we'll be damn'd no doubt-Dumourier.

+Allan Cunningham says that Burns was one day in the King's Arms Inn, at Dumfries, when he overheard a stranger vindicating the defection of General Dumourier from the French army, on which he composed these lines, a copy of which exists in the Poet's hand. It is printed in Cromek's Reliques.

SWEETEST MAY.*

SWEETEST May, let love inspire thee;
Take a heart which he designs thee;
As thy constant slave regard it;
For its faith and truth reward it.

Proof o' shot to birth or money,
Not the wealthy, but the bonnie;
Not high-born, but noble-minded,
In love's silken band can bind it !

ONE NIGHT AS I DID WANDER.†

TUNE-JOHN ANDERSON MY JO.'

ONE night as I did wander,
When corn begins to shoot,
I sat me down to ponder,
Upon an auld tree root:

Auld Ayre ran by before me,
And bicker'd to the seas;

A cushat crowded o'er me

That echoed thro' the braes.

This occurs with Burns' name in Johnson's Musical Museum, iii. 578.

+ This song occurs among Burns' Memoranda in August, 1785, and is printed in Cromek's Reliques.

THE WINTER IT IS PAST.§

A FRAGMENT.

THE winter it is past, and the simmer comes' at last,
And the small birds sing on every tree;
Now every thing is glad, while I am very sad,2
Since my true love is parted from me.3

The rose upon the brier by the waters running clear, May have charms for the linnet or the bee; Their little loves are blest, and their little hearts

at rest,

But

my

true love is parted from me.*

VAR. 1 the summer's come.

2 The hearts of these are glad, but mine is
3 For my true lover has parted from me.
But my lover is parted from me.

My love is like the sun in the firmament does run,
For ever is constant and true;

But his is like the moon that wanders up and down,
And every month it is new.

All you that are in love and cannot it remove,

I pity the pains you endure;

For experience makes me know that your hearts are

full of woe,

And woe that no mortal can cure.

This song was first published in the Musical Museum, p. 208, with the variations and additions here pointed out, but Burns' name was not attached to it. It also occurs as it stands in the text in Thomson's Collection, vol. vi. p. 50, where it is expressly said to have been written by him. The