The rustic Bard, the lab'ring hind, All choose, as various they're inclin'd, "When yellow waves the heavy grain, And some instruct the shepherd train, "Some hint the lover's harmless wile; And make his cottage-scenes beguile "Some, bounded to a district space, Explore at large man's infant race, To mark the embryotic trace Of rustic bard; And careful note each op'ning grace, "Of these am I - COILA my name; I mark'd thy embryo tuneful flame, "With future hope I oft would gaze, Fond, on thy little early ways, Thy rudely caroll'd chiming phrase, Fir'd at the simple, artless lays "I saw thee seek the sounding shore, I saw grim Nature's visage hoar "Or, when the deep-green mantled earth I saw thee eye the gen'ral mirth "When ripen'd fields, and azure skies, To vent thy bosom's swelling rise "When youthful love, warm-blushing, strong, I taught thee how to pour in song, "I saw thy pulses madd'ning play, Wild send thee pleasure's devious way, Misled by fancy's meteor ray, By passion driv❜n; But yet the light that led astray 'I taught thy manners-painting strains, And some, the pride of Coila's plains, "Thou canst not learn, nor can I show, To paint with Thomson's landscape glow, Or wake the bosom-melting throe With Shenstone's art, Or pour, with Gray, the moving flow "Yet all beneath the unrivall'd rose, Yet green the juicy hawthorn grows, "Then never murmur nor repine; Strive in thy humble sphere to shine; And, trust me, not Potosi's mine, Nor king's regard, Can give a bliss o'ermatching thine, "To give my counsels all in one, Thy tuneful flame still careful fan.. Preserve the Dignity of Man, And trust, the Universal Plan Will all protect! - And wear thou this!" she solemn said, And, like a passing thought, she fled THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT. Inscribed to R. A****, Esq. Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short but simple annals of the poor.- GRAY I. Mr lov'd, my honor'd, much respected friend! My dearest meed, a friend's esteem and praise; To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays, The lowly train in life's sequester'd scene; The native feelings strong, the guileless ways; What A**** in a cottage would have been; Ah! tho' his worth unknown, far happier there, I ween, II. November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh; This night his weekly moil is at an end, III. At length his lonely cot appears in view, Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher thro' His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie's smile, Does a' his weary, carking cares beguile, IV. Belyve the elder bairns come drappin in, Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e, Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown, Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee, To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be. |