Six Centuries of English Poetry Part 16

=tentie=, attentively.

=towmond=, twelvemonth.

=uncos=, unknown things, new.

=wales=, chooses.

=wee bit=, little.

=weel=, well.

=wee things=, little folks.

=weel-hained=, well-kept.

=wiles=, knowledge.

=wily=, knowing.

=youngling=, youthful.

=younkers=, youngsters, children.

='yont=, on the other side of.

TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY.

ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH, IN APRIL, 1786.

Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r, Thou's met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem.

To spare thee now is past my power, Thou bonnie gem.

Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet, The bonnie lark, companion meet!

Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet Wi' spreckled breast, When upward springing, blythe 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 an' wa's maun s.h.i.+eld; But thou, beneath the random bield O' clod or stane, Adorns the histie stibble-field, Unseen, alane.

There, in thy scanty mantle clad, Thy snawie bosom sunward spread, Thou lifts thy una.s.suming head In humble guise: But now the share uptears thy bed, And low thou lies!

Such is the fate of artless maid, Sweet flow'ret of the rural shade!

By love's simplicity betrayed, And guileless trust, Till she, like thee, all soiled, is laid Low i' the dust.

Such is the fate of simple bard, On life's rough ocean luckless starred!

Unskilful he to note the card Of prudent lore, Till billows rage, and gales blow hard, And whelm him o'er!

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, He, ruined, sink!

Even thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate, That fate is thine--no distant date; Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives, elate, Full on thy bloom, Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight, Shall be thy doom.

VOCABULARY.

=bield=, protection.

=blythe=, happy.

=bonnie=, pretty.

=card=, compa.s.s.

=glinted=, pa.s.sed quickly.

=histie=, barren.

=maun=, must.

=spreckled=, speckled.

=stibble=, stubble.

=stoure=, dust.

=weet=, wetness.

=wrenched=, deprived.

FOR A' THAT, AND A' THAT.

Is there, for honest poverty, That hangs his head, and a' that?{1} The coward slave, we pa.s.s him by, We dare be poor for a' that!

For a' that, and a' that, Our toils obscure, and a' that; The rank is but the guinea's stamp,{2} The man's the gowd{3} for a' that!

What though on hamely fare we dine, Wear hoddin gray, and a' that; Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, A man's a man for a' that!

For a' that, and a' that, Their tinsel show, and a' that; The honest man, though e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that!

Ye see yon birkie,{4} ca'd a lord, Wha struts, and stares, and a' that; Though hundreds wors.h.i.+p at his word, He's but a coof{5} for a' that; For a' that, and a' that, His riband, star, and a' that; The man of independent mind, He looks and laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that; But an honest man's aboon{6} his might, Guid faith, he maunna fa'{7} that!

For a' that, and a' that, Their dignities, and a' that; The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, Are higher ranks than a' that!

Then let us pray that come it may-- As come it will for a' that-- That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, May bear the gree,{8} and a' that.

For a' that, and a' that, It's coming yet, for a' that, That man to man, the warld o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that!

NOTES.

1. Is there anything in honest poverty to cause one to hang his head, etc.?

2. Explain lines 7 and 8 fully.

3. =gowd=, gold.

4. =birkie=, fellow.

5. =coof=, fool.

6. =aboon his might=, above his power.

7. =maunna fa'=, may not get.

8. =gree=, palm, supremacy.

"Burns was not only the poet of love, but also of the new excitement about man. Himself poor, he sang the poor. Neither poverty nor low birth made a man the worse--the man was 'a man for a' that.'"--_Stopford Brooke._