The Complete Works. Robert Burns

here his body lies fu’ low—

      For saul he ne’er had ony.

      VI. ON JOHN DOVE, INNKEEPER, MAUCHLINE.

      [John Dove kept the Whitefoord Arms in Mauchline: his religion is made to consist of a comparative appreciation of the liquors he kept.]

      Here lies Johnny Pidgeon;

      What was his religion?

      Wha e’er desires to ken,

      To some other warl’

      Maun follow the carl,

      For here Johnny Pidgeon had nane!

      Strong ale was ablution—

      Small beer, persecution,

      A dram was memento mori;

      But a full flowing bowl

      Was the saving his soul,

      And port was celestial glory.

      VII. ON A WAG IN MAUCHLINE

      [This laborious and useful wag was the “Dear Smith, thou sleest pawkie thief,” of one of the poet’s finest epistles: he died in the West Indies.]

      Lament him, Mauchline husbands a’,

      He aften did assist ye;

      For had ye staid whole weeks awa,

      Your wives they ne’er had missed ye.

      Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye press

      To school in bands thegither,

      O tread ye lightly on his grass,—

      Perhaps he was your father.

      VIII. ON A CELEBRATED RULING ELDER

      [Souter Hood obtained the distinction of this Epigram by his impertinent inquiries into what he called the moral delinquencies of Burns.]