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Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames,
Tied up in godly laces,
Before you gie poor Frailty names,
Suppose a change o' cases:

A dear loved lad, convenience snug, 45
A treacherous inclination-
But, let me whisper i' your lug,18
Ye're aiblins 19 nae temptation.

Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin20 wrang,

To step aside is human:

One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving Why they do it;
And just as lamely can ye mark,

How far perhaps they rue it.

Who made the heart, 'tis He alone
Decidedly can try us,

He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring, its various bias:
Then at the balance, let's be mute,

We never can adjust it;

What's done we partly can compute,

But know not what's resisted.

TAM O' SHANTER

A TALE

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O Tam! had'st thou but been sae wise
As taen thy ain wife Kate's advice!
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum,1
A bletherin, blusterin, drunken blellum;2 20
That frae November till October,
Ae3 market-day thou was nae sober;
That ilka melder wi' the miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;
That ev'ry naige was ca'd' a shoe on," 25
The smith and thee gat roaring fou on;
That at the Lord's house, even on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday.
She prophesied, that, late or soon,
Thou would be found deep drowned in
Doon;

Or catched wi' warlocks in the mirk,
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.

Ah, gentle dames! it gars 10 me greet,11 To think how monie counsels sweet, How monie lengthened sage advices, The husband frae the wife despises!

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But to our tale:-Ae market night, Tam had got planted unco right, Fast by an ingle, 12 bleezing finely, Wi' reaming swats13 that drank divinely; And at his elbow, Souter Johnie, His ancient, trusty, drouthy cronie: Tam lo'ed him like a very brither;1 They had been fou for weeks thegither. The night drave on wi' sangs and clatter; And ay the ale was growing better: The landlady and Tam grew gracious Wi' secret favors, sweet and precious: The souter15 tauld his queerest stories; The landlord's laugh was ready chorus: 50 The storm without might rair and rustle, Tam did na mind the storm a whistle.

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Care, mad to see a man sae happy, E'en drowned himsel amang the nappy: As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure, 55 The minutes winged their way wi' pleasure;

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious!

But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed; 60 Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white-then melts forever; 1 rascal. 2 prattler. 3 one. 4 every. 5 grinding. • nag. 7 shod. 8 wizards. • dark. 10 makes. 11 weep. 12 fireside. 13 foaming ale. 14 brother. 15 cobbler.

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By this time he was cross the ford, Whare in the snaw the chapman smoored;20 And past the birks21 and meikle22 stane, 91 Whare drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane;2 And thro' the whins,24 and by the cairn,25 Whare hunters fand the murdered bairn;26 And near the thorn, aboon27 the well, Whare Mungo's mither hanged 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; 100 When, glimmering thro' the groaning

trees

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Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.13.
Coffins stood round like open presses, 125
That shawed the dead in their last
dresses;

And by some devilish cantraip14 sleight
Each in its cauld hand held a light,
By which heroic Tam was able
To note upon the haly table

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A murderer's banes in gibbet airns;15
Twa span-lang, wee, unchristened bairns;
A thief, new-cutted frae a rape16____
Wi' his last gasp his gab17 did gape;
Five tomahawks, wi' bluid red-rusted; 135
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—
The grey hairs yet stack to the heft;
Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu',
Which even to name wad be unlawfu'.

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A' plump and strapping in their teens! Their sarks, instead o' creeshie28 flannen,29 Been snaw-white seventeen hunder

linen!

Thir30 breeks o' mine, my only pair, 155
That ance were plush, o' guid blue hair,
I wad hae gien them aff my hurdies,31
For ae blink o' the bonie burdies!

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There was ae winsome wench and wawlie,
That night enlisted in the core34
Lang after kend on Carrick shore
(For monie a beast to dead she shot,
An' perished monie a bonie boat,
And shook baith meikle corn and bear,3
And kept the country-side in fear).
Her cutty sark36 o' Paisley harn,3
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.38
Ah! little kend thy reverend grannie, 175
That sark she coft39 for her wee Nannie,
Wi' twa pund Scots ('twas a' her riches),
Wad ever graced a dance o' witches!

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Till first ae caper, syne44 anither,
Tam tint45 his reason a' thegither,
And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!"
And in an instant all was dark:
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied,
When out the hellish legion sallied.

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