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Popular passages
Page 122 - Then let us pray that come it may— As come it will for a' that— That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, May bear the gree, and a' that. For a' that, and a' that, It's comin' yet, for a
Page 258 - O happy love ! where love like this is found ! O heart-felt raptures ! bliss beyond compare ! . . . If Heaven a draught of Heavenly pleasure spare, One cordial in this melancholy vale, 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair, In other's arms breathe out the tender tale, Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the ev'ning gale. The
Page 219 - tis He alone Decidedly can try us, He knows each chord its various tone, Each spring its various bias : Then at the balance let's be mute, We never can adjust it; What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted. The
Page 57 - That sacred hour can I forget ? Can I forget the hallow'd grove, Where by the winding Ayr we met, To live one day of parting love ? Eternity will not efface Those records dear of transports past; Thy image at our last embrace ; Ah ! little thought we 'twas our last!
Page 176 - unknown to thee ; All chance, direction, which them canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood ; All partial evil, universal good : And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is
Page 364 - lines :— E'en then, a wish, I mind its power, A wish that to my latest hour Shall strongly heave my breast, That I for poor Auld Scotland's sake Some usefu' plan or beuk could make, Or sing a sang at least. The rough burr-thistle, spreading wide Amang the bearded bear, I turn'd the weeder-clips aside, An
Page 136 - See yonder poor, o'erlaboured wight, So abject, mean, and vile, Who begs a brother of the earth To give him leave to toil ; And see his lordly fellow-worm The poor petition spurn, Unmindful, though a weeping wife And helpless offspring mourn. If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave— By Nature's law designed— Why was an independent wish E'er planted in my mind
Page 59 - Leeze me on drink ! it gies us mair Than either school or college ; It kindles wit, it waukens lair, It pangs us fou o' knowledge. Be't whisky gill or penny wheep Or ony stronger potion, It never fails, on drinking deep. To kittle up our notion By night or day.
Page 282 - was my vade mecum. I pored over them driving my cart, or walking to labour, song by song, verse by verse, carefully noting the true, tender, or sublime, from affectation or fustian ; and I am convinced I owe to this practice much of my critic-craft, such as it is."*
Page 221 - tricks, their black mistakes, Their failings and mischances. Ye see your state wi' their's compar'd, And shudder at the nift'er, But cast a moment's fair regard, What maks the mighty differ ; Discount what scant occasion gave That purity ye pride in, And (what's aft mair than a' the lave) Your better art o