Alas! its no thy neebor1 sweet,
The bonnie lark,2 companion meet,
Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet,3

Wi' speckled breast,

When upward springing, blithe, to greet

The purpling east.

Cauld blew the bitter-biting north
Upon thy early, humble, birth;
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth

Amid the storm,

Scarce reared above the parent earth

Thy tender form.

The flaunting flowers our gardens yield,
High sheltering woods and wa's3 maun shield;
But thou, beneath the random bield 6

O' clod or stane,

Adorns the histie stibble-field,8

Unseen, alane.

There, in thy scanty mantle clad,
Thy snawie bosom sun-ward spread,
Thou lifts thy unassuming head

In humble guise:

But now the share uptears thy bed,

And low thou lies!

Such fate to suffering worth is given,
Who long with wants and woes has striven,

By human pride or cunning driven

To misery's brink,

Till, wrenched of every stay but Heaven,

1 Neebor-neighbour.

He, ruined sink!

2 Lark-"I have seldom" says Mackenzie, "met with an image more truly pastoral, than that of the lark in the second stanza."

3 Weet-rain, wetness.

4 Glinted-peeped.

5 Wa's-walls. It is a characteristic of the lowland Scotch to elide the in many words, thus, wa' for wall, a' for all, &c.

6 Random bield-casual shelter.

7 Thou adorns-In the northern dialect of the English language, to which the lowland Scotch is akin, all the persons, both singular and plural, of the present tense, are alike, and all end in s, thus, I adorns, thou adorns, he adorns, we adorns, &c. So in the second line, "thou's met," for thou hast met. 8 Histie stibble-field-dry stubble-field.

ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH.3

4

WEE, sleekit, cowerin, timorous beastie,5

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou needna start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle! 6

I wad be laith' to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle! 8

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion,

Which maks thee startle

At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
An fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker10 in a thravell

'S a sma' request:

I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave,12

And never miss't!

1 Ruin's plough-share-a bold figure and strikingly in keeping with the subject.

2 Elate triumphantly.

3 The charm," says Lord Jeffrey, "of these fine lines will be found to consist in the simple tenderness of the delineation;" and also, it may be added, in the hearty human sympathies which are interwoven with it. words "fellow-mortal," strike this note with powerful effect.

4 Sleekit-sleek, sly.

5 Beastie-little beast. The termination ie marks the diminutive.

6 Bickering brattle-hasty run.

8 Pattle-a small spade to clean the plough. 10 Daimen-icker-an ear of corn occasionally. 12 Lave-leaving, the rest.

The

Laith-loth; as baith, both.
9 Whyles-sometimes.
11 Thrave-shock of corn.

The final consonant is often omitted, as an' for and

Hald-abiding place, home.

9 Cranreuch-hoar-frost.

11 Gang aft a-gley-often go wrong.

A COMPARISON.'

THE lapse of time and rivers is the same,
Both speed their journey with a restless stream:
The silent pace with which they steal away,
No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay:
Alike irrevocable both when past,

And a wide ocean swallows both at last.
Though each resembles each in every part,

A difference strikes, at length, the musing heart:
Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound,
How laughs the land, with various plenty crowned!
But time that should enrich the nobler mind,2
Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind.

Cowper.

THE MESSIAH.3

A SACRED ECLOGUE.

YE nymphs of Solyma!+ begin the song:
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong.
The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus,6 and the Aonian maids,
Delight no more-O Thou my voice inspire
Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!

1 A similar thought is found in the piece entitled the "Thames," see p. 9, but there it is merely suggested, here it is amply developed.

2 Nobler mind-the soil of the mind, which is far nobler and more important than that of the land.

3 "The idea of uniting the sacred prophecies and grand imagery of Isaiah, with the mysterious visions and pomp of numbers in the Pollio of Virgil, thereby combining both sacred truth and heathen mythology in predicting the coming of the Messiah, is one of the happiest subjects for producing emotions of sublimity, that ever occurred to the mind of a poet:" Roscoe.

4 Solyma-same as Salem, supposed to be the ancient name of Jerusalem. 5 Sublimer-i. e. than those required by common subjects. A comparative sometimes, in English as well as in Latin, has the force of an emphatic positive. "Sublimer" therefore means truly sublime.

6 Mount Pindus, in Thessaly, and Aonia, a district of Boeotia, are celebrated as haunts of the muses." This fanciful designation thus arises. The lovely scenery of many parts of Greece, suggested beautiful conceptions to the minds. of the poets, who, in their turn, personified the influences which thus affected themselves, and gave them the name of muses. Hence the muses are said to inspire the poet-that is to sing his song to him-while he merely wrote it down.

70 Thou, &c.-i.e. the classic muses of Greece are unequal to such a subject, and, therefore, do Thou, &c.

I

Rapt into future times, the bard1 begun :—
A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a son!
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise,

Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies;
The etherial Spirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top descends the mystic Dove.
Ye heavens!3 from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly shower!
The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid,+
From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail;
Returning justice5 lift aloft her scale;

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend.
Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn!
Oh, spring to light, auspicious Babe! be born.
See nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing spring:
See lofty Lebanon his head advance,

See nodding forests on the mountains dance :
See spicy clouds from lowly Sharon rise,
And Carmel's flowery top perfume the skies!

66

Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way!" a God, a God appears!"
“A God, a God!" the vocal hills reply,

66

The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mountains! and ye valleys rise!
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks! ye rapid floods, give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear him, ye deaf! and all ye blind, behold! 8

The bard-i. e. Isaiah, or the poet supposed to be endowed from above with the same inspiration.

2 Isaiah xi, 1. 3 Isaiah xlv, 8.

4 Isaiah xxv, 4.

5 Returning justice-Astræa, the goddess of justice, according to the fable, left the earth in the iron age, being unable to bear with the sinfulness of mankind; in this new golden age she will return. See also Isaiah ix, 7.

6 Carmel's flowery top-"The good qualities of the soil," says a modern traveller, "are apparent from the fact that many odoriferous plants and flowers, as hyacinths, jonquils, tazettos, anemones, &c., grow wild upon the 7 Isaiah x1, 3, 4.

mountain."

8 Hear him, &c.-so striking an expression that it is to be wished that the next four lines had been omitted, as they only tamely repeat the same idea.

G