Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

179 . To Miss Ferrier, enclosing Elegy on Sir J. H. Blair

NAE heathen name shall I prefix,

Frae Pindus or Parnassus;

Auld Reekie dings them a’ to sticks,

For rhyme-inspiring lasses.

Jove’s tunefu’ dochters three times three

Made Homer deep their debtor;

But, gien the body half an e’e,

Nine Ferriers wad done better!

Last day my mind was in a bog,

Down George’s Street I stoited;

A creeping cauld prosaic fog

My very sense doited.

Do what I dought to set her free,

My saul lay in the mire;

Ye turned a neuk—I saw your e’e—

She took the wing like fire!

The mournfu’ sang I here enclose,

In gratitude I send you,

And pray, in rhyme as weel as prose,

A’ gude things may attend you!