| |
| LET other heroes boast their scars, | |
| The marks of sturt and strife: | |
| And other poets sing of wars, | |
| The plagues of human life: | |
| Shame fa’ the fun, wi’ sword and gun | 5 |
| To slap mankind like lumber! | |
| I sing his name, and nobler fame, | |
| Wha multiplies our number. | |
| |
| Great Nature spoke, with air benign, | |
| “Go on, ye human race; | 10 |
| This lower world I you resign; | |
| Be fruitful and increase. | |
| The liquid fire of strong desire | |
| I’ve pour’d it in each bosom; | |
| Here, on this had, does Mankind stand, | 15 |
| And there is Beauty’s blossom.” | |
| |
| The Hero of these artless strains, | |
| A lowly bard was he, | |
| Who sung his rhymes in Coila’s plains, | |
| With meikle mirth an’glee; | 20 |
| Kind Nature’s care had given his share | |
| Large, of the flaming current; | |
| And, all devout, he never sought | |
| To stem the sacred torrent. | |
| |
| He felt the powerful, high behest | 25 |
| Thrill, vital, thro’ and thro’; | |
| And sought a correspondent breast, | |
| To give obedience due: | |
| Propitious Powers screen’d the young flow’rs, | |
| From mildews of abortion; | 30 |
| And low! the bard—a great reward— | |
| Has got a double portion! | |
| |
| Auld cantie Coil may count the day, | |
| As annual it returns, | |
| The third of Libra’s equal sway, | 35 |
| That gave another Burns, | |
| With future rhymes, an’ other times, | |
| To emulate his sire: | |
| To sing auld Coil in nobler style | |
| With more poetic fire. | 40 |
| |
| Ye Powers of peace, and peaceful song, | |
| Look down with gracious eyes; | |
| And bless auld Coila, large and long, | |
| With multiplying joys; | |
| Lang may she stand to prop the land, | 45 |
| The flow’r of ancient nations; | |
| And Burnses spring, her fame to sing, | |
| To endless generations! | |
| |
