Where lives the soul of song?
Dwells it amid the city's festive halls?
Where crowd the eager throng,
Or where the wanderer's silent footstep falls?

Loves it the gay saloon,
Where wine and dances steal away the night,
And bright as summer noon
Burns round the pictured walls a blaze of light?

Seeks it the public square,
When victory hails the people's choson son,
And loud applauses there
From lip to lip in emulous greetings run?

Dwells it amid the host,
Who bear their crimson banners waving high;

New is your Cast , not new the vertues tho,
In honour Lofty you exalteth so:
Choyce graces you did long agoe affect,
High honours they did unto you select;
On you, which as a Cast , most sodainly,
Lighted upon your soule heroickly
Admiring it, sith without your desire,
So nimbly unto honour you aspire.

Thus though no garnester but as vertue betted,
Verily you a lofty new cast fitted,
Faire game you needs must have, who so faire gaine,
Thus so unlook't for, by one cast retaine,
Oh he that vertue hath to be his dice,

Placed within your breast I doe espie,
High ensignes of most true Nobility,
In you I see that vertues faire increase,
Lively acquires unto your soule great Peace;
In you nobilliti's most noble Rays,
Place still most lively your immortall praise.

So then most happily you posten on,
That you may be a most selected stone,
And vertue happily hath posten you,
Now to receive reward that is but due
Howerly to your deserts, which vertuously,
On high affecting, ought to be on high.
Posten you have then happily in deed,

Of all the heroes of antiquity,
None is more dear to fame than Elerslie ;
Brave Hector ne'er gave Troy more relief,
Than Scotia found in her immortal chief.
Ambition led Achilles to sack Troy,
But Scotland's welfare was our hero's joy.
His country's woes, he ever mourn'd in steel,
And this blood thirsty Edward oft did feel,
When prudence taught him treach'ry to elude,
His asylum was an oak in the Torewood .

Hail! noble Buchan , ever prone to save,
Great Wallace memory from oblivion's cave;
So what Edinas Artists rear'd to fame,

Mounts high above the Earth, are free from wet,
On which who builds a sure foundation set,
Verily standing firme against each storme:
Nor doth the Mount leave truly to performe,
The right condition of a good foundation,

In one estate that ever keepes its station:
Oh happie's he, whose house builded thereon,
Yeelds not in stormes the fall of one poore stone.

Builded have you thereon, which canseth it
Lasting to stand, no part thereof to fleete,
Vertue is the firme Mountaine , honour is,
Newly reard as an house; the end is blisse,

O do you mind the auld shop, Dan?
They've scarcely left a hint —
Where Banjo and meself, lang syne,
Brot our furse books to print.
They've partly left the auld front, Dan,
But that is going too —
An' sae I sadly sing the sang:
" The Auld Shop an' the New! "

Twa boxes 'neath the window-sills
Stood open to the glare,
An' soiled and tattered Secon'-Han'
Took dust, or fluttered there.

Spoken through the world in kindness — through the universe in thunder!
When the world-folk would not listen, while the world was growing grey:
" Those whom God or Fate hath mated, let no mortal put asunder! "
And the Thousand seek to do it, spite of Satan, every day.
Perish by the Sword, or Slander! They shall feel it, they shall know it,
Who, when from a sky of azure that dread thunderbolt was hurled,
Made me drunkard who was sober, made me devil who was poet,

I've not seen a piano for many a day,
My heart has grown callous, my head has grown grey;
'Tis an old faded letter these memories bring,
And I'm thinking to-night of the " Kiss in the Ring " .
Kiss in the Ring —
Kiss in the Ring —
O it makes me remember old " Kiss in the Ring " .

We drove down the gullies, we drove down the creek,
We drove round the sidings, we drove round the Peak
Carts, buggies and horses — the Bush girls to bring
To laugh with us there in sweet " Kiss in the Ring " .
Kiss in the Ring —
Kiss in the Ring —

Rare Peer we pry you, who your vertues see,
O pry no better Peer , we say then thee.
Better Peer none can be, true worth affecting,
Ever found out then you, vertue selecting,
Rightly declaring you a Noble Peer ,
Treasuring vertues, shining in you cleare,
Ever a lasting treasure so retaining:

Peerles you will be, by so Peerles gaining,
Eternising your name and memory,
Record remuning to posterity.
Peerles is vertue, and doth make a Peer ,
In whom resplendant graces shine most cleare;
Your self an Image, rather the self-same,

I shed no tear upon thy early grave,
For thy pure soul has found deliverance now,
And from the eminence that Nature gave
Looks down upon a world that sought to bow,
With a low burden of consuming cares,
Thy spirit to the reach of theirs.
Thou wert not fashioned for the menial throng,
Who plod with easy step the common way,
But thy delight was in the sons of song,
And, sooth, to play
On the light strings of some unearthly lyre
Was all thy office, and thy sole desire.

Thy spirit could not brook the common lot.