The Canongate Burns (119 page)
Read The Canongate Burns Online
Authors: Robert Burns
Tune: Bonie Dundee
First printed in Thomson's
Select Collection
, 1798.
TRUE-HEARTED was he, the sad swain o' the Yarrow,
      And fair are the maids on the banks of the Ayr;
But by the sweet side o' the Nith's winding river,
      Are lovers as faithful, and maidens as fair:
5
To equal young Jessie, seek Scotia all over;
      To equal young Jessie, you seek it in vain:
Grace, Beauty, and Elegance fetter her lover,
      And maidenly modesty fixes the chain. â
Fresh is the rose in the gay, dewy morning,
10
      And sweet is the lily at evening close;
But in the fair presence o' lovely, young Jessie,
      Unseen is the lily, unheeded the rose.
Love sits in her smile, a wizard ensnaring;
      Enthron'd in her een he delivers his law:
eyes
15
And still to her charms she alone is a stranger,
      Her modest demeanor's the jewel of a'.
This was written on Miss Jenny Staig, daughter of David Staig, Provost of Dumfries. It was sent to Thomson in early 1793 but remained unpublished until 1798. Kinsley (p. 542) misprints l. 13 as âLove tits in her smile'.
Tune: Nancy's to the Green-Wood Gane
First printed in Thomson's edition of 1799.
FAREWELL, thou stream that winding flows
      Around Eliza's dwelling;
O mem'ry, spare the cruel throes
      Within my bosom swelling:
5
Condemn'd to drag a hopeless chain,
      And yet in secret languish;
To feel a fire in every vein,
      Nor dare disclose my anguish. â
Love's veriest wretch, unseen, unknown
10
      I fain my griefs would cover;
The bursting sigh, th' unweeting groan,
tearless
      Betray the hapless lover:
I know thou doom'st me to despair,
      Nor wilt, nor canst relieve me;
15
But, Oh Eliza, hear one prayer,
      For pity's sake forgive me!
The music of thy voice I heard,
      Nor wist while it enslav'd me;
I saw thine eyes, yet nothing fear'd,
20
      Till fears no more had sav'd me:
Th' unwary Sailor thus, aghast,
      The wheeling torrent viewing,
Mid circling horrors sinks at last
      In overwhelming ruin. â
This was written to the air employed by Allan Ramsay in his song
The Last Time I Came o'er the Moor.
Burns changed the namein the second line to Eliza from Maria after his quarrel with the Riddells.
Â
Tune: O Bonnie Lass, Will Ye Lie in a Barrack.
First printed in Currie, 1800.
O ken ye what Meg o' the mill has gotten,
know, got
An' ken ye what Meg o' the mill has gotten?
She's gotten a coof wi' a claute o' siller,
fool, lots, money
And broken the heart o' the barley Miller. â
5
The Miller was strappin, the Miller was ruddy,
strong, rugged
A heart like a lord, and a hue like a lady;
The Laird was a widdifu', bleerit knurl;
rascal, bleary dwarf
She's left the gude-fellow and taen the churl. â
good, taken
The Miller, he hecht her a heart leal and luving,
offered, loyal
10
The Laird did address her wi' matter more muving,
A fine pacing horse wi' a clear chain'd bridle,
A whip by her side, and a bony side-saddle. â
O wae on the siller, it is sae prevailing,
woe, money, so
And wae on the luve that is fixed on a mailen!
woe, farm
15
A tocher's nae word in a true lover's parle,
dowry no, pledge
But gie me my luve and a fig for the warl!
give, world
Here Burns has reworked an old song he sent to Johnson. For the old version, see our Appendix of rejected and doubtful works. This version was sent to Thomson in 1793, but was rejected by him.
Tune: Liggeram cosh, or My Bonnie Wee Lass
First printed by Thomson, 1799.
Blythe hae I been on yon hill,
have
      As the lambs before me;
Careless ilka thought and free,
every
      As the breeze flew o'er me:
5
Now nae langer sport and play,
no longer
      Mirth or sang can please me;
song
Lesley is sae fair and coy,
so
      Care and anguish seize me. â
Heavy, heavy is the task,
10
      Hopeless love declaring:
Trembling, I dow nocht but glow'r,
do nothing, stare
      Sighing, dumb, despairing!
If she winna ease the thraws,
will not, throes
      In my bosom swelling;
15
Underneath the grass-green sod
      Soon maun be my dwelling. â
must
Burns wrote this on Miss Lesley Baillie, the heroine of
Saw Ye
Bonie Lesley
. The poet describes the song as one of âthe finest songs I ever made in my life ⦠composed on a young lady, positively the most beautiful, lovely woman in the world' (Letter 586).
Tune: Logan Water
First printed in Currie, 1800.
O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide
      The day I was my Willie's bride;
And years sin syne hae o'er us run
since then
      Like Logan to the simmer sun.
summer
5
But now thy flowery banks appear
      Like drumlie Winter, dark and drear,
gloomy
While my dear lad maun face his faes,
must, foes
      Far, far frae me and Logan braes. â
from, hill slopes
Again the merry month o' May
10
      Has made our hills and vallies gay;
The birds rejoice in leafy bowers,
      The bees hum round the breathing flowers:
Blythe Morning lifts his rosy eye,
      And Evening's tears are tears o' joy:
15
My soul delightless, a' surveys,
all
      While Willie's far frae Logan braes. â
from
Within yon milk white hawthorn bush,
that
      Amang her nestlings sits the thrush;
among
Her faithfu' Mate will share her toil,
20
      Or wi' his song her cares beguile:
But I wi' my sweet nurslings here,
      Nae Mate to help, nae Mate to cheer,
no
Pass widowed nights and joyless days,
      While Willie's far frae Logan braes. â
from
25
O wae upon you, Men o' State,
woe
      That brethren rouse in deadly hate!
As ye make mony a fond heart mourn,
many
      Sae may it on your heads return!
so
How can your flinty hearts enjoy Lanarkshire
30
      The widow's tears, the orphan's cry:
But soon may Peace bring happy days,
      And Willie, hame to Logan braes!
home
Burns knew several old songs that mention Logan Braes, one by his contemporary, John Mayne. Here the poet takes the original lyric and turns it into an anti-war song, sung, characteristically, in the feminine voice. He introduced it to Thomson, who did not like the dissenting tone of the final lines, which Burns defends as the voice of âplaintive indignation of some swelling, suffering heart, fired at the tyrannic strides of some Public Destroyer; and overwhelmed with private distresses, the consequence of a Country's Ruin' (Letter 566). Logan Water joins the river Nethan in Lanarkshire.
First printed by Stewart, 1801.
Ask why God made the GEM so small,
      And why so huge the granite?
Because God meant, mankind should set
      That higher value on it.
This was written about the diminutive Miss Deborah Duff Davies, the subject of
Bonnie Wee Thing
. Some editors mention a âMrs A' who is contrasted with Miss Davies. This unidentified woman is described in a manner only Burns could have written â âa huge, bony, masculine, cowp-carl, horse-godmother, he-termagant of a six-feet figure, who might have been bride to Og, King of Bashan: a Goliath of Gath' (Letter 563).
or
On a Galloway Laird not Quite so Wise as Solomon
First printed in Morison, 1811.
Bless Jesus Christ, O Cardoness,
      With grateful lifted eyes;
Who taught that not the soul alone,
      But body too shall rise.
For had he said, the soul alone
      From death I will deliver:
Alas, alas, O Cardoness!
      Then hadst thou lain for ever!
David Maxwell of Cardoness, near Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway, was made a Baronet in 1804 and died in 1825. Burns obviously met him at some point and described him as a âstupid, money-loving dunderpate of a Galloway Laird' (Letter 563). Maxwell, a loyalist landowner, during 1792 and 1793 paid two of his workers to travel among the peasantry of Dumfriesshire to track down and report to him anyone active as a reformist radical (See RH 2/4/65/ff.54â57). Maxwell also wrote to the Duke of Buccleuch and mentioned Dumfries in horror due to the ârapidity with which these mad ideas [reformist] had made sheer progress' (See RH 2/4/65/f.48).
Belonging to the Same
First printed in Scott Douglas, 1876.
We grant they're thine, those beauties all,
      So lovely in our eye:
Keep them, thou eunuch, Cardoness,
      For others to enjoy!
Seeabove notes on David Maxwell of Cardoness. This was supposedly written during the poet's Galloway tour in the summer of 1793.
Lord Galloway â
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
What dost thou in that mansion fair,
      Flit, Galloway! and find
Some narrow, dirty, dungeon cave,
      The picture of thy mind. â
John Stewart (1736â1805) was the 7th Earl of Galloway. When Burns toured with John Syme through Galloway during 1793, Burns is supposed to have composed this extempore on seeing Galloway house across the bay of Wigtown, after the two travellers left Gatehouse of Fleet on their way to Kirkcudbright. Many previous editions mention that Stewart was a pious and loyal public servant who served as a Tory M.P. for many years and never merited these angry epigrams by Burns. Local folklore, however, still tells of Stewart's habit of sending out a servant with a whip to clear the streets in Garlieston in order that he could ride through the small town without having to see any of the local peasantry. Burns never usually hit at anyone of high rank without justification. This grand house still stands.
2
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
No Stewart art thou, Galloway,
      The Stewarts all were brave:
Besides, the Stewarts were but fools,
      Not one of them a knave. â
Burns, according to Syme, also wrote this on Lord Galloway during the Galloway tour. See above notes.
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
Bright ran thy LINE, O Galloway,
      Thro' many a far-fam'd sire:
So ran the far-fam'd ROMAN WAY,
      And ended in a mire. â
See above notes.
On The Author Being Threatened With Vengeance
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
Spare me thy vengeance, Galloway;
      In quiet let me live:
I ask no kindness at thy hand,
      For thou hast none to give.
It was supposedly reported to Burns that Stewart of Galloway had heard of his critical epigrams and would take action against him. Prompted by this story, Burns wrote the above.
Wisdom and Science â
First printed in
The Burns Chronicle
, 1940.
WISDOM and Science â honor'd Powers!
      Pardon the truth a sinner tells;
I owe my dearest, raptured hours
      To FOLLY with her cap and bells. â
Burns wrote four scraps of verse in John Syme's copy of a volume of radical poetry called
The British Album
, a collection mostly written by Robert Merry, who spearheaded the group known as the âDella Cruscan' poets. Syme's recollection dates composition to around June 1793, although the second piece may have been penned earlier, given that it was also supposedly found in a lady's pocket book, hence the title. Syme's copy of
The British Album
is now in the Dumfries Museum. The first piece is written at the foot of Merry's Ode ending âThen still for you my bosom swells, / O Folly, with your Cap and Bells!' The Mackay edition drops this epigram and two others, admitting only the second piece to the canon, stating in error, âThe second of these alone has been so far admitted to the canon' (Appendix B, Burns:
A-Z, The Complete Wordfinder
, p. 753). Kinsley rightly accepts all four. (See notes to no. 412A-D, Vol. III, p. 1432.)