A prince can mak a belted knight, Their dignities and a' that, The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, Then let us pray that come it may, That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, For a' that, and a' that, It's coming yet, for a' that; ADDRESS TO THE WOODLARK. O stay, sweet warbling wood-lark, stay, Again, again that tender part, Say, was thy little mate unkind, And heard thee as the careless wind? Thou tells o' never-ending care; THIS IS NO MY AIN LASSIE Tune- This is no my ain House.' This is no my ain lassie, Fair tho' the lassie be; Weel ken I my ain lassie, I see a form, I see a face, She's bonie, blooming, straight, and tall, The kind love that's in her e'e LAST MAY A BRAW WOOER. Tune-The Lothian Lassie.' Last May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen, I said there was naething I hated like men, He spak o' the darts in my bonie black een, A weel-stocked mailen1, himsel for the laird, But what wad ye think? in a fortnight or less, 4 He up the lang loan to my black cousin Bess, Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her, could bear her, But a' the neist week as I fretted wi' care, I glowred as I'd seen a warlock, a warlock, But owre my left shouther I gae him a blink, My wooer he capered as he'd been in drink, 2 I spier'd1 for my cousin fu' couthy and sweet, And how her new shoon fit her auld shachl't 3 feet But Heavens! how he fell a swearin, a swearin, But Heavens! how he fell a swearin. He begged, for Gudesake, I wad be his wife, So e'en to preserve the poor body in life, I think I maun wed him to-morrow, to-morrow, I think I maun wed him to-morrow. O WERT THOU IN THE CAULD BLAST. Tune- The Lass of Livingstone.' O, wert thou in the cauld blast, My plaidie to the angry airt, I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee; Around thee blaw, around thee blaw, Or were I in the wildest waste, Sae black and bare, sae black and bare, If thou wert there, if thou wert there. Or were I monarch o' the globe, Wi' thee to reign, wi' thee to reign, Wad be my queen, wad be my queen. 1 asked. 2 kind. direction of the wind. 3 twisted. $ shelter. CAROLINE OLIPHANT (BARONESS NAIRN). [LADY NAIRN was born in 1766. Though she lived to an advanced age, dying in 1845, most of her songs were written early in life, soon after the appearance of Burns's poems in 1787. The first and only collected edition of her works appeared in 1869, but for two generations before, songs of her composing had been sung in every Scotch household and concert-room, though the name of the author was unknown. A surprising number of the most familiar Scotch songs, many of them popularly believed to have descended from remote antiquity, were written by Lady Nairn-The Land o' the Leal, The Laird o' Cockpen, Caller Herrin, The Auld House, HuntingTower, John Tod, Wha'll be King but Charlie? Charlie is my darling, Will ye no come back again? He's ower the hills that I loe weel, I will sit in my wee croo house.] Like another Scotch lady, the authoress of Auld Robin Gray, Miss Oliphant was first moved to song-writing by the desire of rescuing fine old tunes from coarse themes. This is her own account of the beginning of her poetic impulse; she saw, she says, with admiration how Burns was fitting popular melodies with worthy words, and longed to help him in the good work. That this object should have mixed with her poetic impulses is characteristic of her training, but no songs written with or without a moral object were ever more spontaneous in their lyric flow, more free from artificiality. Two great motives may be distinguished in her verse-sympathy with the life of the common people among whom she moved with old-fashioned familiarity as a radiant comforter and joy-bringer, and sympathy with the chivalrous spirit of Jacobitism, which was the air she breathed in her own family. Her songs contain all that is best and highest in the Jacobite poetry of Scotland, the tender regret that never sinks into wailing, the high-tempered gaiety that bends but will not break, the fiery spirit that reaches forward to victory and never thinks of defeat. It was a misfortune for the Pretender that such a poet |