Sweetly decked with pearly dew Fair on Isabella's morn The sun propitious smiled, But, long ere noon, succeeding clouds Succeeding hopes beguiled. Fate oft tears the bosom cords Were it in the poet's power, Dread Omnipotence alon Can heal the wound he gave, Can point the brimful grief-worn eyet To scenes beyond the grave. Virtue's blossoms there shall blow, And fear no withering blast; There Isabella's spotless worth Shall happy be at last. ON THE DEATH OF SIR JAMES HUNTER BLAIR. Sir James was an Ayrshire squire, and a member of the banking-house of Sir William Forbes and Company; a public-spirited citizen and magistrate of Edinburgh, and an amiable man. He had been one of Burns's kindest patrons when the poet first came to town, feeling, doubtless, a particular interest in his fortunes on account of his Ayrshire nativity. THE lamp of day, with ill-presaging glare, Dim, cloudy, sank beneath the western wave; The inconstant blast howled through the darkening air, And hollow whistled in the rocky cave. Lone as I wandered by each cliff and dell, Once the loved haunts of Scotia's royal train;1 Or mused where limpid streams once hallowed well,2 Or mouldering ruins mark the sacred fane;' The increasing blast roared round the beetling rocks, The clouds, swift-winged, flew o'er the starry sky. 1 The King's Park, at Holyrood House. 2 St. Anthony's Well. 8 St. Anthony's Chapel The groaning trees untimely shed their locks, And shooting-meteors caught the startled eye. The paly moon rose in the livid east, And 'mong the cliffs disclosed a stately form, In weeds of wo that frantic beat her breast, And mixed her wailings with the raving storm. Wild to my heart the filial pulses glow, Reversed that spear, redoubtable in war, "My patriot son fills an untimely grave!" With accents wild and lifted arms she cried: "Low lies the hand that oft was stretched to save, Low lies the heart that swelled with honest pride. “A weeping country joins a widow's tear; The helpless poor mix with the orphan's cry; The drooping arts surround their patron's bier; And grateful science heaves the heartfelt sigh! "I saw my sons resume their ancient fire; "My patriot falls but shall he lie unsung, While empty greatness saves a worthless I ame? No: every Muse shall join her tuneful tongue, And future ages hear his growing fame. And I will join a mother's tender cares, Through future times to make his virtue last; That distant years may boast of other Blairs!"She said, and vanished with the sweeping blast. TO MISS FERRIER,1 ENCLOSING THE ELEGY ON SIR J. H. BLAIR. NAE heathen name shall I prefix Frae Pindus or Parnassus ; Auld Reekie dings them a' to sticks, beats Jove's tunefu' dochters three times three 1 Author of The Inheritance, etc. But, gien the body half an e'e, given Last day my mind was in a bog, Do what I dought to set her free, Ye turned a neuk tottered stopefied -I saw your e'e — She took the wing like fire! The mournu' sang I here enclose could And [wish and] pray in rhyme sincere, VERSES WRITTEN WITH A PENCIL OVER THE CHIMNEY-PIECE, IN ADMIRING Nature in her wildest grace, 1 The original manuscript of this piece is in the possession of Miss Grace Aiken, Ayr. |