Page:The poetical works of Robert Burns.djvu/149
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THE POEMS OF BURNS.
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By this time he was cross the ford,Whare in the snaw, the chapman smoor'd;And past the birks and meikle stane,Whare drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane:And thro' the whins, and by the cairn,Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn;And near the thorn, aboon the well,Whare Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.—Before him Doon pours all his floods;The doubling storm roars thro' the woods;The lightnings flash from pole to pole;Near and more near the thunders roll:When, glimmering thro' the groaning trees,Kirk-Alloway seem'd in a bleeze;Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing;And loud resounded mirth and dancing.— Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!What dangers thou canst make us scorn!Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil;Wi' usquebae, we'll face the devil!—The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd,Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,She ventur'd forward on the light;And, vow! Tam saw an unco sight!Warlocks and witches in a dance;Nae cotillon brent new frae France,But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels,Put life and mettle in their heels.A winnock-bunker in the east,There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast;A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,To gie them music was his charge:He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl,Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.—Coffins stood round like open presses,That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses;And by some devilish cantrip slightEach in its cauld hand held a light,—By which heroic Tam was ableTo note upon the haly table,A murderer's banes in gibbet aims;Twa span-lang, wee, unchristen'd bairns;A thief, new-cutted frae the rape,Wi' his last gasp his gab did gape;Five tomahawks, wi' blude red rusted;Five scymitars, wi' murder crusted;A garter, which a babe had strangled;A knife, a father's throat had mangled,Whom his ain son o' life bereft,