Short Poems

On an old acquaintance who seemed to pass the Bard without notice

Dost hang thy head, Billy, asham'd that thou knowest me?
'Tis paying in kind a just debt that thou owest me.

At the election of Magistrates for Dumfries, 1794, John McMurdo, Esqr., was chosen Provost and a Mr. Swan one of the Baillies; and at the Entertainment usually given on the occasion Burns, seeing the Provost's Supporters on the Bench, took his pencil and wrote the following.

Baillie Swan, Baillie Swan,
Let you do what you can,
God ha' mercy on honest Dumfries:
But e'er the year's done,
Good Lord! Provost John
Will find that his Swans are but Geese.

II

Dulness, with redoubted sway,
Has seized the wits of Symon Gray.

Symon Gray,
You're dull to-day.

He clench'd his pamphlets in his fist,
He quoted and he hinted,
Till in a declamation-mist,
His argument he tint it:
He gaped for't, he graped for 't,
He fand it was awa, man;
And what his common sense came short,
He eked out wi' law, man.

TO THE ENGLISHMAN JOHN MILTON

What features, form, mien, manners, with a mind
Oh how intelligent! and how refined!
Were but thy piety from fault as free,
Thou wouldest no Angle but an Angel be.

All the many blooms could not open at once.
Aoi Flower, swiftly hit by a jealous wind, was destroyed.
In crimson chambers many were the dreams of spring nights.
I love Cicada Shell for slipping out like a cicada.

Before my Spring I garnered Autumn's gain,
Out of her time my field was white with grain,
The year gave up her secrets, to my woe.
Forced and deflowered each sick season lay,
In mystery of increase and decay;
I saw the sunset ere men see the day,
Who am too wise in all I should not know.
Without Benefit of Clergy .

When ye say to Tabaqui, " My Brother! " when ye call the Hyena to meat,
Ye may cry the Full Truce with Jacala — the Belly that runs on four feet.
The Undertakers .

These are the Four that are never content, that have never been filled since the Dews began —
Jacala's mouth, and the glut of the Kite, and the hands of the Ape, and the Eyes of Man.
The King's Ankus .