Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
251 . Impromptu Lines to Captain Riddell
Y
I’ve read through and through, sir,
With little admiring or blaming;
The Papers are barren
Of home-news or foreign,
No murders or rapes worth the naming.
Those chippers and hewers, Are judges of mortar and stone, sir; In a fabric complete, I’ll boldly pronounce they are none, sir; To tell all your goodness Bestow’d on your servant, the Poet; Would to God I had one Like a beam of the sun, And then all the world, sir, should know it!