16. Praise to the man! a nation stood
Beside his coffin with wet eyes,—
Her brave, her beautiful, her good,-
As when a loved one dies.

17. Such graves as his are pilgrim-shrines,
Shrines to no code or creed confined-
The Delphian vales, the Palestines,
The Meccas, of the mind.

18. Sages, with Wisdom's garland wreathed,

Crowned kings, and mitred priests of power, And warriors with their bright swords sheathed, The mightiest of the hour;

19. And lowlier names, whose humble home
Is lit by Fortune's dimmer star,

Are there-o'er wave and mountain come,
From countries near and far;

20. Pilgrims, whose wandering feet have pressed
The Switzer's snow, the Arab's sand,
Or trod the piled leaves of the West,
My own green forest land.

21. All ask the cottage of his birth,

Gaze on the scenes he loved and sung,
And gather feelings not of earth

His fields and streams among.

22. They linger by the Doon's low trees,
And pastoral Nith, and wooded Ayr,
And round thy sepulchres, Dumfries!
The poet's tomb is there.

23. But what to them the sculptor's art,

His funeral columns, wreaths, and urns:
Wear they not graven on the heart

The name of Robert Burns?

I. THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT.

[INTRODUCTION.-The Cotter's' Saturday Night was written by Burns in 1785 (his twenty-sixth year). It was dedicated to his warm friend Robert Aiken, a legal practitioner in the town of Ayr, Scotland, and at once attained a popularity which it still holds, not only in the bard's native land, but whereever the English language is spoken. "It is easy," says Hales, "to see in this piece the influence of Gray, of Goldsmith, and of Pope; but easier still to observe the freshness and originality of it. There are few, if any, interiors in our literature that rival the one here given for truthfulness, and sincere but not exaggerated sentiment."

The poem is written partly in Scottish (in the dialect of Ayrshire, Burns's birthplace) and partly in English--the more homely passages being in the poet's vernacular. The metre is the Spenserian stanza of nine lines.]

1. My loved, my honored, 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 sequestered scene;

The native feelings strong, the guileless ways;
What Aiken in a cottage would have been;

Ah! though his worth unknown, far happier there, I ween! *

NOTES.-Line 1. My. friend. Robert | 6. lowly train. See Deserted Village,

...

Aiken: see Introduction.

4. meed, reward.

page 223, line 252.

9. ween, deem.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-I-9. My... ween! Is the diction of this stanza main

ly English or Scottish?

2. No mercenary bard.

4. Supply the omitted

Give the reason for your opinion. Substitute a synonymous expression. verb in this line.

6. The... scene. Compare with the line in Gray's Elegy,

"The short and simple annals of the poor,"

and change the line into prose diction.

7. The native feelings strong. Remark on the order of words.

1 Cotter, "one who inhabits a cot or cottage, dependent on a farm."

2. 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 labor 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 hameward bend.

3. At length his lonely cot appears in view,
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree;

Th' expectant wee things, toddlin', stacher through
To meet their dad, wi' flichterin' noise and glee.
His wee bit ingle, blinking bonnily,

His clean hearthstane, his thriftie wifie's smile,
The lisping infant prattling on his knee,
Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile,
And makes him quite forget his labor and his toil.

10. wi' angry sugh: that is, with angry, | 19. cot = cottage. sough, or moaning sound.

12. beasts, cattle.-frae from.-pleugh

21. wee, little.-stacher, stagger.-toddlin', walking with short steps.

22. flichterin', fluttering.

23. ingle, fireplace.

17. the morn, on the morrow, next day. 26. kiaugh, anxiety.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-10-18. November... bend. Observe the transition from the Anglicism of the first stanza to the Scotticism of the second stanza. Select the Scottish words, or forms of words.

12, 13. What is the grammatical construction of these two lines?

15. night. What is the grammatical construction of "night?"

17. Hoping. Of what word, expressed or understood, is this an adjunct?

18. What is the subject of "does bend?"-Compare Gray's Elegy, page 196, line 3, of this book.

21, 22. Th' expectant... glee. Express the thought in English prose.

24. What diminutival form occurs in this line?

26, 27. Does... makes. Can you justify the use of the singular number in these verbs?

10

15

20

25

4. 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 neibor town:

Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown,
In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e,
Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown,
Or déposite her sair-worn penny-fee,

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

5. Wi' joy unfeigned, brothers and sisters meet,
And each for other's welfare kindly spiers:
The social hours, swift-winged, unnoticed fleet;
Each tells the uncos 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.

6. Their master's and their mistress's command
The younkers a' are warnéd to obey,
An' mind their labors wi' an eydent hand,
An' ne'er, though out o' sight, to jauk or play:

wages paid in money.

clothes.
weel's

47. younkers, youngsters.

35. sair-worn, dearly earned.-penny-fee, 48. eydent, diligent.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-28-36. State in your own language the substance of

stanza 4.

35. Observe the accentuation.

41. eye their hopeful years. What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 29.) 42. What instance of personification is there in this line?

"An' oh, be sure to fear the Lord alway! An' mind your duty, duly, morn an' night!

50

Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray,
Implore His counsel and assisting might:

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

7. 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, an' flush her cheek;

Wi' heart-struck, anxious care, inquires his name,
While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak ;

Weel pleased the mother hears its nae wild, worthless rake.

8. Wi' kindly welcome Jenny brings him ben

A strappin' 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 pleased to think her bairn's respected like the lave.

51. duty, prayers.

52. gang go.

56. wha= : who.

58. convoy her, see her.

62. hafflins (merely half), partly.

64. ben, in: that is, into the room (kitchen and parlor).

67. cracks, talks.-kye, cows.

69. blate, bashful; laithfu', hesitating. 72. the lave, the rest.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-50. An' oh. direct to the oblique form of narration.

Observe here the transition from the

54. They aright. Analyze this line.

...

56. wha... same. What kind of clause, and adjunct to what?

59. conscious flame. Explain.

65. taks the mother's eye. Explain.—Why "eye" in this line and “e’e” in

60?

67. kye.

Give an allied old English form of the plural of cow.