Page:Beauties of Burn's poems.pdf/124

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O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us,
To see ourselves as others see us,
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
And foolish notion notion;
What airs in dress and gait wad leave us,
And e'en Devotion.

 

Divider from 'The Beauties of Burn's Poems' a chapbook printed in Falkirk in 1819

 

TAM SAMSON's^[1] ELEGY.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.—Pope.

 

Has auld Kilmarnock seen the diel?
Or great M'———^[2] thrawn his heel?
Or R———^[3] again grown weel,
To preach and read?
Na, waur than a', cries ilka chiel,
Tam Samson's dead!

1. When this worthy old Sportsman went out last Muirfowl Season, he supposed it was to be, in Ossian's phrase, "the last of his fields," and expressed an ardent wish to die and be buried in the Muirs. On this hint, the Author composed his Elegy and Epitaph.
2. A certain Preacher, a great favourite with the Million. Vide the Ordination, p. 72.
3. Another Preacher, an equal favourite with the few, who were at that time ailing. For him, see also the Ordination, Stanza ix.