THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS 28

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS 28

XLIII.

 

THE

 

COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT.

 

INSCRIBED TO ROBERT AIKEN, ESQ.

 

"Let not ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure:

Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile,

The short and simple annals of the poor."

 

GRAY

 

[The house of William Burns was the scene of this fine, devout, and

tranquil drama, and William himself was the saint, the father, and the

husband, who gives life and sentiment to the whole. "Robert had

frequently remarked to me," says Gilbert Burns, "that he thought there

was something peculiarly venerable in the phrase, 'Let us worship

God!' used by a decent sober head of a family, introducing family

worship." To this sentiment of the author the world is indebted for

the "Cotter's Saturday Night." He owed some little, however, of the

inspiration to Fergusson's "Farmer's Ingle," a poem of great merit.

The calm tone and holy composure of the Cotter's Saturday Night have

been mistaken by Hogg for want of nerve and life. "It is a dull,

heavy, lifeless poem," he says, "and the only beauty it possesses, in

my estimation, is, that it is a sort of family picture of the poet's

family. The worst thing of all, it is not original, but is a decided

imitation of Fergusson's beautiful pastoral, 'The Farmer's Ingle:' I

have a perfect contempt for all plagiarisms and imitations."

Motherwell tries to qualify the censure of his brother editor, by

quoting Lockhart's opinion--at once lofty and just, of this fine

picture of domestic happiness and devotion.]

 

 

I.

 

My lov'd, my honour'd, much respected friend!

No mercenary bard his homage pays;

With honest pride, I scorn each selfish end:

My dearest meed, a friend's esteem and praise:

To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays,

The lowly train in life's sequester'd scene;

The native feelings strong, the guileless ways;

What Aiken in a cottage would have been;

Ah! tho' his work unknown, far happier there, I ween!

 

II.

 

November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh;

The short'ning winter-day is near a close;

The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh:

The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose:

The toil-worn Cotter frae his labour goes,

This night his weekly moil is at an end,

Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes,

Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend,

And weary, o'er the moor, his course does homeward bend.

 

III.

 

At length his lonely cot appears in view,

Beneath the shelter of an aged tree;

Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin', stacher thro'

To meet their Dad, wi' flichterin' noise an' glee.

His wee bit ingle, blinkin' bonnily.

His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie Wifie's smile,

The lisping infant prattling on his knee,

Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile,

An' makes him quite forget his labour and his toil.

 

IV.

 

Belyve, the elder bairns come drapping in,

At service out amang the farmers roun':

Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin

A cannie errand to a neebor town:

Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown,

In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e,

Comes hame, perhaps to shew a braw new gown,

Or deposite her sair won penny-fee,

To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.

 

V.

 

With joy unfeign'd, brothers and sisters meet,

An' each for other's welfare kindly spiers:

The social hours, swift-wing'd, unnotic'd, fleet;

Each tells the unco's that he sees or hears;

The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years;

Anticipation forward points the view.

The Mother, wi' her needle an' her shears,

Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new;

The Father mixes a' wi' admonition due.

 

VI.

 

Their master's an' their mistress's command,

The younkers a' are warned to obey;

And mind their labours wi' an eydent hand,

An' ne'er, tho' out of sight, to jauk or play:

"And O! be sure to fear the Lord alway!

And mind your duty, duly, morn and night!

Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray,

Implore His counsel and assisting might:

They never sought in vain, that sought the Lord aright!"

 

VII.

 

But, hark! a rap comes gently to the door;

Jenny, wha kens the meaning o' the same,

Tells how a neebor lad cam o'er the moor,

To do some errands, and convoy her hame.

The wily Mother sees the conscious flame

Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek,

With heart-struck anxious care, inquires his name,

While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak;

Weel pleas'd the Mother hears it's nae wild, worthless rake.

 

VIII.

 

Wi' kindly welcome, Jenny brings him ben;

A strappan youth; he taks the Mother's eye;

Blythe Jenny sees the visit's no ill ta'en;

The Father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye.

The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy,

But blate, an laithfu', scarce can weel behave;

The Mother, wi' a woman's wiles, can spy

What makes the youth sae bashfu' and sae grave;

Weel pleas'd to think her bairn's respected like the lave.

 

IX.

 

O happy love! Where love like this is found!

O heart-felt raptures!--bliss beyond compare!

I've paced much this weary, mortal round,

And sage experience bids me this declare--

"If heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare,

One cordial in this melancholy vale,

'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair,

In other's arms, breathe out the tender tale,

Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the ev'ning gale."

 

X.

 

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart--

A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth!

That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art,

Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth?

Curse on his perjur'd arts! dissembling smooth!

Are honour, virtue, conscience, all exil'd?

Is there no pity, no relenting ruth,

Points to the parents fondling o'er their child?

Then paints the ruin'd maid, and their distraction wild?

 

XI.

 

But now the supper crowns their simple board,

The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia's food:

The soupe their only hawkie does afford,

That 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood:

The dame brings forth in complimental mood,

To grace the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck, fell,

An' aft he's prest, an' aft he ca's it guid;

The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell,

How 'twas a towmond auld, sin' lint was i' the bell.

 

XII.

 

The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face,

They, round the ingle, form a circle wide;

The Sire turns o'er, with patriarchal grace,

The big ha'-Bible, ance his father's pride;

His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside,

His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare;

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide,

He wales a portion with judicious care;

And 'Let us worship GOD!' he says, with solemn air.

 

XIII.

 

They chant their artless notes in simple guise;

They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim:

Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,

Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;

Or noble Elgin beets the heaven-ward flame,

The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:

Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame;

The tickl'd ear no heart-felt raptures raise;

Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.

 

XIV.

 

The priest-like Father reads the sacred page,

How Abram was the friend of God on high;

Or, Moses bade eternal warfare wage

With Amalek's ungracious progeny;

Or how the royal bard did groaning lie

Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;

Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;

Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire;

Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.

 

XV.

 

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme,

How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed;

How HE, who bore in Heaven the second name,

Had not on earth whereon to lay his head:

How His first followers and servants sped,

The precepts sage they wrote to many a land:

How he who lone in Patmos banished,

Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand;

And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heaven's command.

 

XVI.

 

Then kneeling down, to HEAVEN'S ETERNAL KING,

The Saint, the Father, and the Husband prays:

Hope 'springs exulting on triumphant wing,'[52]

That thus they all shall meet in future days:

There ever bask in uncreated rays,

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear,

Together hymning their Creator's praise,

In such society, yet still more dear:

While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere.

 

XVII.

 

Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride,

In all the pomp of method and of art,

When men display to congregations wide,

Devotion's ev'ry grace, except the heart!

The Pow'r, incens'd, the pageant will desert,

The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;

But haply, in some cottage far apart,

May hear, well pleas'd, the language of the soul;

And in His book of life the inmates poor enrol.

 

XVIII.

 

Then homeward all take off their sev'ral way;

The youngling cottagers retire to rest:

Their Parent-pair their secret homage pay,

And proffer up to Heaven the warm request,

That HE, who stills the raven's clam'rous nest,

And decks the lily fair in flow'ry pride,

Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best,

For them and for their little ones provide;

But, chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside.

 

XIX.

 

From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs,

That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad:

Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,

"An honest man's the noblest work of GOD;"[53]

And certes, in fair virtue's heav'nly road,

The cottage leaves the palace far behind;

What is a lordship's pomp? a cumbrous load,

Disguising oft the wretch of human kind,

Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refin'd!

 

XX.

 

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!

For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent!

Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil

Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!

And, O! may heaven their simple lives prevent

From luxury's contagion, weak and vile!

Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,

A virtuous populace may rise the while,

And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd Isle.

 

XXI.

 

O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide

That stream'd through Wallace's undaunted heart:

Who dar'd to nobly stem tyrannic pride,

Or nobly die, the second glorious part,

(The patriot's God, peculiarly Thou art,

His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!)

O never, never, Scotia's realm desert;

But still the patriot, and the patriot bard,

In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard!

 

FOOTNOTES:

 

[Footnote 52: Pope.]

 

[Footnote 53: Pope.]

 

* * * * *

 

 

 

 

XLIV.

 

THE FIRST PSALM.

 

[This version was first printed in the second edition of the poet's

work. It cannot be regarded as one of his happiest compositions: it is

inferior, not indeed in ease, but in simplicity and antique rigour of

language, to the common version used in the Kirk of Scotland. Burns

had admitted "Death and Dr. Hornbook" into Creech's edition, and

probably desired to balance it with something at which the devout

could not cavil.]

 

 

The man, in life wherever plac'd,

Hath happiness in store,

Who walks not in the wicked's way,

Nor learns their guilty lore!

 

Nor from the seat of scornful pride

Casts forth his eyes abroad,

But with humility and awe

Still walks before his GOD.

 

That man shall flourish like the trees

Which by the streamlets grow;

The fruitful top is spread on high,

And firm the root below.

 

But he whose blossom buds in guilt

Shall to the ground be cast,

And, like the rootless stubble, tost

Before the sweeping blast.

 

For why? that GOD the good adore

Hath giv'n them peace and rest,

But hath decreed that wicked men

Shall ne'er be truly blest.

 

* * * * *

 

 

 

 

XLV.

 

THE FIRST SIX VERSES

 

OF THE

 

NINETIETH PSALM.

 

[The ninetieth Psalm is said to have been a favourite in the household

of William Burns: the version used by the Kirk, though unequal,

contains beautiful verses, and possesses the same strain of sentiment

and moral reasoning as the poem of "Man was made to Mourn." These

verses first appeared in the Edinburgh edition; and they might have

been spared; for in the hands of a poet ignorant of the original

language of the Psalmist, how could they be so correct in sense and

__EXPRESSION__ as in a sacred strain is not only desirable but necessary?]

 

 

O Thou, the first, the greatest friend

Of all the human race!

Whose strong right hand has ever been

Their stay and dwelling place!

 

Before the mountains heav'd their heads

Beneath Thy forming hand,

Before this ponderous globe itself

Arose at Thy command;

 

That Pow'r which rais'd and still upholds

This universal frame,

From countless, unbeginning time

Was ever still the same.

 

Those mighty periods of years

Which seem to us so vast,

Appear no more before Thy sight

Than yesterday that's past.

 

Thou giv'st the word: Thy creature, man,

Is to existence brought;

Again thou say'st, "Ye sons of men,

Return ye into nought!"

 

Thou layest them, with all their cares,

In everlasting sleep;

As with a flood Thou tak'st them off

With overwhelming sweep.

 

They flourish like the morning flow'r,

In beauty's pride array'd;

But long ere night, cut down, it lies

All wither'd and decay'd.

 

* * * * *

 

 

 

 

XLVI.

 

TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY,

 

ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH IN

 

APRIL, 1786.

 

[This was not the original title of this sweet poem: I have a copy in

the handwriting of Burns entitled "The Gowan." This more natural name

he changed as he did his own, without reasonable cause; and he changed

it about the same time, for he ceased to call himself Burness and his

poem "The Gowan," in the first edition of his works. The field at

Mossgiel where he turned down the Daisy is said to be the same field

where some five months before he turned up the Mouse; but this seems

likely only to those who are little acquainted with tillage--who think

that in time and place reside the chief charms of verse; and who feel

not the beauty of "The Daisy," till they seek and find the spot on

which it grew. Sublime morality and the deepest emotions of the soul

pass for little with those who remember only what the genius loves to forget.]