Robert Burns

“ Just much about it wi' your scanty sense:
125Will your poor, narrow foot-path of a street,
Where twa wheel-barrows tremble when they meet,
Your ruin'd, formless bulk o' stane and lime,
Compare wi' bonie brigs o' modern time?
There's men of taste wou'd tak the Ducat stream, [5]
130Tho' they should cast the very sark and swim,
E'er they would grate their feelings wi' the view
O' sic an ugly, Gothic hulk as you."
Auld Brig
"Conceited gowk! ”

“ In Ayr, wag-wits nae mair can hae a handle
To mouth 'a Citizen,' a term o' scandal;
210Nae mair the Council waddles down the street,
In all the pomp of ignorant conceit;
Men wha grew wise priggin owre hops and raisins,
Or gather'd lib'ral views in Bonds and Seisins:
If haply Knowledge, on a random tramp,
215Had shor'd them with a glimmer of his lamp,
And would to Common-sense for once betray'd them,
Plain, dull Stupidity stept kindly in to aid them."
What farther clish-ma-claver aight been said,
What bloody wars, if Sprites had blood to shed,
220No man can tell ”

“ Ye worthy Proveses, an' mony a Bailie,
Wha in the paths o' righteousness did toil aye;
180Ye dainty Deacons, and ye douce Conveners,
To whom our moderns are but causey-cleaners
Ye godly Councils, wha hae blest this town ”

“ Coil or Water of Coyle — a tributary of the River Ayr. ↑ 142. Lugar or Lugar Water — a tributary of the River Ayr. ↑ 143. Greenock — a town and port in Schotland the north of Ayr. ↑ 144. The banks of Garpal Water is one of the few places in the West of Scotland, where those fancy-scaring beings, known by the name of Ghaists, still continue pertinaciously to inhabit. — R. B. (?) ”

“ The broken, iron instruments of death:
260At sight of whom our Sprites forgat their kindling wrath.
1786 Sources Worldburnsclub Gutenberg, p. 138 Clydesite Burns Country Archive (1) Archive (2) Notes ↑ 78. A noted tavern at the Auld Brig end. — R. B.↑ 83. [One of] The two steeples. — R. B.↑ 84. [One of] The two steeples. — R. B.↑ 94. The Gos-hawk, or Falcon. — R. B.↑ 129. ”