From Lines To William Simson
Robert Burns
1 Auld Coila now may fidge fu' fain,
2 She's gotten poets o' her ain--
3 Chiels wha their chanters winna hain,
4 But tune their lays,
5 Till echoes a' resound again
6 Her weel-sung praise.
7 Nae poet thought her worth his while
8 To set her name in measur'd style:
9 She lay like some unken'd-of isle
10 Beside New Holland,
11 Or whare wild-meeting oceans boil
12 Besouth Magellan.
13 Ramsay and famous Fergusson
15 Yarrow and Tweed to mony a tune
16 Owre Scotland rings;
17 While Irvin, Lugar, Ayr an' Doon
18 Naebody sings.
19 Th' Ilissus, Tiber, Thames, an' Seine
20 Glide sweet in mony a tunefu' line;
21 But, Willie, set your fit to mine
22 And cock your crest,
23 We'll gar our streams and burnies shine
24 Up wi' the best!
25 We'll sing auld Coila's plains an' fells,
26 Her moors red-brown wi' heather bells,
27 Her banks an' braes, her dens an' dells,
28 Where glorious Wallace
29 Aft bure the gree, as story tells,
30 Frae Southron billies.
31 At Wallace' name what Scottish blood
32 But boils up in a spring-tide flood!
33 Oft have our fearless fathers strode
34 By Wallace' side,
35 Still pressing onward red-wat-shod,
36 Or glorious dy'd.
37 O sweet are Coila's haughs an' woods,.
38 When lintwhites chant amang the buds,
39 And jinkin hares in amorous whids
40 Their loves enjoy,
41 While thro' the braes the cushat croods
42 Wi' wailfu' cry!
43 Ev'n winter bleak has charms to me,
44 When winds rave thro' the naked tree;
45 Or frosts on hills of Ochiltree
46 Are hoary gray;
47 Or blinding drifts wild-furious flee,
48 Dark'ning the day!
49 O Nature! a' thy shews an' forms
50 To feeling, pensive hearts hae charms!
51 Whether the summer kindly warms
52 Wi' life an' light,
53 Or winter howls in gusty storms
54 The lang, dark night!
55 The Muse, nae poet ever fand her,
56 Till by himsel he learn'd to wander
57 Adoun some trottin burn's meander,
58 And no think lang;
59 O sweet to stray and pensive ponder
60 A heart-felt sang!
61 The warly race may drudge and drive,
62 Hog-shouther, jundie, stretch an' strive:
63 Let me fair nature's face descrive,
64 And I wi' pleasure
65 Shall let the busy, grumbling hive
66 Bum owre their treasure.
