Robert Burns: How To Know Him Part 19

Her walie nieves like midden-creels, [ample fists, dung baskets]

Her face wad fyle the Logan-water; [dirty]

Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a b.u.t.ton for her!

The songs written by Burns in connection with politics are often lively and pointed, but they have little imagination, and the pa.s.sing of the issues they dealt with has deprived them of general interest.

Two cla.s.ses of exceptions may be noted. He was, as we have seen, sympathetically interested in the French Revolution, and the fundamental doctrine of Liberty, Fraternity, Equality was cast by him into a poem which, he himself said, is "not really poetry," but is admirably vigorous rhetoric in verse, and has become the cla.s.sic utterance of the democratic faith.

A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT

Is there for honest poverty That hings his head, an' a' that? [hangs]

The coward slave, we pa.s.s him by, We dare be poor for a' that!

For a' that, an' a' that, Our toils obscure, an' a' that; The rank is but the guinea's stamp; The man's the gowd for a' that. [gold]

What tho' on hamely fare we dine, Wear hodden-gray, and a' that; [coa.r.s.e gray]

Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, [Give]

A man's a man for a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that, Their tinsel show, an' a' that; The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, [fellow]

Wha struts, and stares, an' a' that; Tho' hundreds wors.h.i.+p at his word, He's but a coof for a' that: [dolt]

For a' that, an' 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, an' a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might, [above]

Guid faith, he mauna fa' that! [must not claim]

For a' that, an' a' that, Their dignities, an' a' that, The pith o' sense an' pride o' worth Are higher rank than a' that.

But 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, an' a' that. [first place]

For a' that, an' a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That man to man the warld o'er Shall brithers be for a' that.

Another, equally famous, sprang from his patriotic enthusiasm for the heroes of the Scottish war of independence, but was written with more than a slight consciousness of what seemed to him the similarity of the spirit then abroad in France.

SCOTS, WHA HAE

ROBERT BRUCE'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY, BEFORE THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed Or to victorie.

Now's the day, and now's the hour; See the front o' battle lour!

See approach proud Edward's power-- Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?

Wha can fill a coward's grave?

Wha sae base as be a slave?

Let him turn and flee!

Wha for Scotland's King and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or freeman fa'?

Let him follow me!

By Oppression's woes and pains!

By your sons in servile chains!

We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

Lay the proud usurpers low!

Tyrants fall in every foe!

Liberty's in every blow!

Let us do or die!

The other cla.s.s of exceptions is the group of songs on Jacobite themes. The rebellion led by Prince Charles Edward in 1745 had produced a considerable quant.i.ty of campaign verse, almost all without poetic value; but after the turmoil had died down and the Stuart cause was regarded as finally lost, there appeared in Scotland a peculiar sentimental tenderness for the picturesque and unfortunate family that had sunk from the splendors of a throne that had been theirs for centuries into the sordid misery of royal pauperism. Burns, whose ancestors had been "out" in the '45, shared this sentiment, as Walter Scott later shared it, both realizing that it had nothing to do with practical politics. Out of this feeling there grew a considerable body of poetry, a poetry full of idealism, touched with melancholy, and atoning for its lack of reality by a richness of imaginative emotion.

Burns led the way in this unique movement, and was worthily followed by such writers as Lady Nairne, James Hogg, and Sir Walter himself. He followed his usual custom of availing himself of fragments of the older lyrics, but as usual he polished the pebbles into jewels and set them in gold. Here are a few specimens of this poetry of a lost cause.

IT WAS A' FOR OUR RIGHTFU' KING

It was a' for our rightfu' King, We left fair Scotland's strand; It was a' for our rightfu' King, We e'er saw Irish land, My dear, We e'er saw Irish land.

Now a' is done that men can do, And a' is done in vain; My love and native land farewell, For I maun cross the main, [must]

My dear, For I maun cross the main.

He turn'd him right and round about Upon the Irish sh.o.r.e; And gae his bridle-reins a shake, [gave]

With adieu for evermore, My dear, Adieu for evermore.

The sodger from the wars returns, [soldier]

The sailor frae the main; But I hae parted frae my love, Never to meet again, My dear, Never to meet again.

When day is gane, and night is come, And a' folk bound to sleep, I think on him that's far awa', The lee-lang night, and weep, [live-long]

My dear, The lee-lang night, and weep.

COME BOAT ME O'ER TO CHARLIE

Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er, Come boat me o'er to Charlie; I'll gie John Ross another bawbee, [half-penny]

To boat me o'er to Charlie.

We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea, We'll o'er the water to Charlie; Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go, And live or die wi' Charlie.

I lo'e weel my Charlie's name, [love]

Tho' some there be abhor him: But O, to see auld Nick gaun hame, [going]

And Charlie's faes before him! [foes]

I swear and vow by moon and stars, And sun that s.h.i.+nes so clearly, If I had twenty thousand lives, I'd die as aft for Charlie.

THE HIGHLAND LADDIE

The bonniest lad that e'er I saw, Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie, Wore a plaid and was fu' braw, [gaily dressed]

Bonnie Highland laddie.

On his head a bonnet blue, Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie, His royal heart was firm and true, Bonnie Highland laddie.