Poem by Thomas Walker

Answer II

1.

I got your letter, honest Jamie;
Wou man! an unco lift ye gie me!
How hie a ferly wad ye hae me!
	Come, let me down,
Or otherwise ye must get to me
	An air balloon.
	
2.

I’m hois’d a wally wipe indeed,
But I’m sae dizzy i’ the head,
I’ll no stay lang up here I dread –
	An’ gif I fa’,
My down-come, Sir, to me will breed
	I fear, a claw.
	
3.

What need ye screw me up fae hie,
Just as if nane coud equal me,
A man o’ mean an’ low degree,
	Scarce learnt to read,
Yet sic a noise as there must be
	About my head.
	
4.

Soun’ing my praise wi’ sic a knell,
Athort the country, like a bell,
Ye’ll do mair ill than tongue can –
	Mak’ me owr proud,
An’ gar me think mair o’ mysel
	Than what I shoud.
	
5.

Sae far ye need na shoot me ben,
My properties I’m sure I ken,
As weel as ony sinfu’ men
	Had ever need; 
How durst ye ever lift a pen,
	On sic a head.
	
6.

But left we shoud cast out wi’ ither,
(Wha were as thick an’ pack the gither,
As ae auld wife had been our mither,)
	I must tak’ care; 
Sae wi’ you, Sir, my poet brither,
	I’ll flyte nae mair.
		
7.

But since I be a poet prime,
What for need I conceal my rhyme, 
Might I not fell athort my fine
	Droll harmless glee? 
I think this wad na be a crime, –
	James, what think ye?
		
8.

As sure as twa an’ three mak’ five, 
This is a drift I mean to drive, 
To get some feeding for my hive,
	O’ feckless fowks; 
But I may tak’ the gee belyve,
	For a’ my jokes.
		
9.

I’m aye sae thrang, an’ scant of cash,
An’ that Will Who-ca’ it, lazy hash,
Took up some drunt, an’ wad na fash
	To write for me,
Whilk did na please that weel my pash –
	But what car’d he.
		
10.

The first time ye gang o’er the gate, 
Gie my kin’ compliments to Pate, 
Wha when I meet him, soon or late,
	Aye sport gies me, –
I scarce e’er saw a fallow yet
	Sae fou o’ glee.

1. Epistle from a Taylor to Robert Burns
2. Answer I

Print

1814 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version