139. Lines on Meeting with Lord Daer


THIS 1 wot ye all whom it concerns,
I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns,
October twenty-third,
A ne’er-to-be-forgotten day,
Sae far I sprackl’d up the brae,
I dinner’d wi’ a Lord.

I’ve been at drucken writers’ feasts,
Nay, been bitch-fou ‘mang godly priests-
Wi’ rev’rence be it spoken!-
I’ve even join’d the honour’d jorum,
When mighty Squireships of the quorum,
Their hydra drouth did sloken.

But wi’ a Lord!-stand out my shin,
A Lord-a Peer-an Earl’s son!
Up higher yet, my bonnet
An’ sic a Lord!-lang Scoth ells twa,
Our Peerage he o’erlooks them a’,
As I look o’er my sonnet.

But O for Hogarth’s magic pow’r!
To show Sir Bardie’s willyart glow’r,
An’ how he star’d and stammer’d,
When, goavin, as if led wi’ branks,

/> An’ stumpin on his ploughman shanks,
He in the parlour hammer’d.

I sidying shelter’d in a nook,
An’ at his Lordship steal’t a look,
Like some portentous omen;
Except good sense and social glee,
An’ (what surpris’d me) modesty,
I markèd nought uncommon.

I watch’d the symptoms o’ the Great,
The gentle pride, the lordly state,
The arrogant assuming;
The fient a pride, nae pride had he,
Nor sauce, nor state, that I could see,
Mair than an honest ploughman.

Then from his Lordship I shall learn,
Henceforth to meet with unconcern
One rank as weel’s another;
Nae honest, worthy man need care
To meet with noble youthful Daer,
For he but meets a brother.

Note 1. At the house of Professor Dugald Stewart. [back]


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139. Lines on Meeting with Lord Daer