stanzas.
103
Stanzas for the Centenary of Robert Burns.
Ye train immortal! whose far-seeing gaze
Can penetrate the future and the past;
Whose favourites wear that shining cloak and bays,
Too oft seen struggling with Life's adverse blast;—
Oh! deign the hallowed mantle now to throw,
Round one who dares approach your sacred fane—
An humble suppliant for the genial glow
Which life diffuses through the trembling strain!
Can penetrate the future and the past;
Whose favourites wear that shining cloak and bays,
Too oft seen struggling with Life's adverse blast;—
Oh! deign the hallowed mantle now to throw,
Round one who dares approach your sacred fane—
An humble suppliant for the genial glow
Which life diffuses through the trembling strain!
Seized by the venerating world around,
The exalted theme to which my lyre I'd string;
In every land the Minstrel's name is found,
Whilst vocal incense loads each breezes' wing.
A century hath vanished year by year—
Leaving its records on the page of Time—
Since his first glance was hailed in humble sphere,
Whose fame refulgent glows in many a clime.
Behold the new-born, decked in lowly bands,
Welcomed by parent and by guest in turns;
Whilst Coila, viewless, lays ordaining hands
Upon the infant head of Robert Burns.
A chasten'd rapture fills her godlike face,
As o'er the babe she spreads her garb divine;
Her eye prophetic his career can trace,—
Each mournful chequer, and each radiant line:
The exalted theme to which my lyre I'd string;
In every land the Minstrel's name is found,
Whilst vocal incense loads each breezes' wing.
A century hath vanished year by year—
Leaving its records on the page of Time—
Since his first glance was hailed in humble sphere,
Whose fame refulgent glows in many a clime.
Behold the new-born, decked in lowly bands,
Welcomed by parent and by guest in turns;
Whilst Coila, viewless, lays ordaining hands
Upon the infant head of Robert Burns.
A chasten'd rapture fills her godlike face,
As o'er the babe she spreads her garb divine;
Her eye prophetic his career can trace,—
Each mournful chequer, and each radiant line:
