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[Page 66][Page 67]
POOR MAILIE'S ELEGY.
1 LAMENT in rhyme, lament in prose,
2 Wi' saut tears trickling down your nose;
3 Our Bardie's fate is at a close,
4 Past a' remead!
5 The last, sad cape-stane of his woes;
6 Poor Mailie's dead!
7 It's no the loss o' warl's gear,
8 That could sae bitter draw the tear,
9 Or make our Bardie, dowie, wear
10 The mourning weed
11 He's lost a friend and neebor dear,
12 In Mailie dead.
13 Thro' a' the town she trotted by him;
14 A lang half-mile she could descry him;
15 Wi' kindly bleat, when she did spy him,
16 She ran wi' speed:
17 A friend mair faithfu' ne'er came nigh him,
18 Than Mailie dead.
19 I wat she was a sheep o' sense,
20 An' could behave hersel wi' mense:
21 I'll say't, she never brak a fence,
22 Thro' thievish greed.
23 Our Bardie, lanely, keeps the spence
24 Sin' Mailie's dead.
25 Or, if he wanders up the howe,
26 Her living image in her yowe,
27 Comes bleating till him, owre the knowe,
28 For bits o' bread;
29 An' down the briny pearls rowe
30 For Mailie dead.
31 She was nae get o' moorlan tips,
32 Wi' tauted ket, an' hairy hips;
33 For her forbears were brought in ships,
34 Frae' yont the TWEED
35 A bonier fleesh ne'er cross'd the clips
36 Than Mailie's dead.
37 Wae worth that man wha first did shape,
38 That vile, wanchancie thing — a raep!
[Page 68]39 It maks guid fellows girn an' gape,
40 Wi' chokin dread;
41 An' Robin's bonnet wave wi' crape
42 For Mailie dead.
43 O, a' ye Bards on bonie DOON!
44 An' wha on AIRE your chanters tune!
45 Come, join the melancholious croon
46 O' Robin's reed!
47 His heart will never get aboon!
48 His Mailie's dead!
Source edition
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796. POEMS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT, BY ROBERT BURNS. Kilmarnock: printed by John Wilson, M,DCC,LXXXVI., 1786, pp. 66-68. 240p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T91548) (Page images digitized by National Library of Scotland.)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Robert Burns
- ADDRESS TO THE DEIL. ()
- ANOTHER. ()
- THE AULD FARMER'S NEW-YEAR-MORNING SALUTATION TO HIS AULD MARE, MAGGIE, ON GIVING HER THE ACCUSTOMED RIPP OF CORN TO HANSEL IN THE NEW-YEAR. ()
- THE AUTHOR'S EARNEST CRY AND PRAYER, TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND HONORABLE, THE SCOTCH REPRESENTATIVES IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. ()
- A BARD'S EPITAPH. ()
- THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT. INSCRIBED TO R. A****, Esq; ()
- THE DEATH AND DYING WORDS OF POOR MAILIE, THE AUTHOR'S ONLY PET YOWE, AN UNCO MOURNFU' TALE. ()
- A DEDICATION TO G**** H******* Esq; ()
- DESPONDENCY, AN ODE. ()
- A DREAM. ()
- EPIGRAM ON SAID OCCASION, ()
- EPISTLE TO A YOUNG FRIEND. ()
- EPISTLE TO DAVIE. A BROTHER POET. ()
- EPISTLE TO J. L*****K, AN OLD SCOTCH BARD. ()
- EPISTLE TO J. R******, ENCLOSING SOME POEMS. ()
- EPITAPH ON A HENPECKED COUNTRY SQUIRE. ()
- [EPITAPH] FOR G. H. Esq; ()
- [EPITAPH] FOR R. A. Esq; ()
- [EPITAPH] FOR THE AUTHOR'S FATHER. ()
- [EPITAPH] ON A CELEBRATED RULING ELDER. ()
- [EPITAPH] ON A NOISY POLEMIC. ()
- [EPITAPH] ON WEE JOHNIE. Hic jacet wee Johnie. ()
- THE FAREWELL. TO THE BRETHREN OF St. JAMES'S LODGE, TARBOLTON. ()
- HALLOWEEN. ()
- THE HOLY FAIR. ()
- THE LAMENT. OCCASIONED BY THE UNFORTUNATE ISSUE OF A FRIEND'S AMOUR. ()
- MAN WAS MADE TO MOURN, A DIRGE. ()
- ON A SCOTCH BARD GONE TO THE WEST INDIES. ()
- A PRAYER, IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH. ()
- SCOTCH DRINK. ()
- SONG, COMPOSED IN AUGUST. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- TO A LOUSE, On Seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet at Church. ()
- TO A MOUNTAIN-DAISY, On turning one down, with the Plough, in April — 1786. ()
- TO A MOUSE, On turning her up in her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785. ()
- TO J. S****. ()
- TO RUIN. ()
- TO THE SAME. ()
- TO W. S*****N, OCHILTREE. ()
- THE TWA DOGS, A TALE. ()
- THE VISION. ()
- WINTER, A DIRGE. ()