Chapter 568 of 984

I. · Section 92

The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence.: With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham · Robert Burns, Allan Cunningham

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Could aught of song declare my pains, Could artful numbers move thee, The muse should tell, in labour'd strains, O Mary, how I love thee! They who but feign a wounded heart May teach the lyre to languish; But what avails the pride of art, When wastes the soul with anguish?

II.

Then let the sudden bursting sigh The heart-felt pang discover; And in the keen, yet tender eye, O read th' imploring lover. For well I know thy gentle mind Disdains art's gay disguising; Beyond what Fancy e'er refin'd, The voice of nature prizing.

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CCXVIII.

HERE'S TO THY HEALTH, MY BONNIE LASS.

Tune--"_Laggan Burn._"

["This song is in the Musical Museum, with Burns's name to it," says Sir Harris Nicolas. It is a song of the poet's early days, which he trimmed up, and sent to Johnson.]