TO MR. THOMSON.
[The song of Caledonia, in honour of Mrs. Burns, was accompanied by two others in honour of the poet’s mistress: the muse was high in song, and used few words in the letter which enclosed them.]
May, 1795.
O stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay![277]
Let me know, your very first leisure, how you like this song.
Long, long the night.[278]
How do you like the foregoing? The Irish air, “Humours of Glen,” is a great favourite of mine, and as, except the silly stuff in the “Poor Soldier,” there are not any decent verses for it, I have written for it as follows:—
Their groves o’ sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon.[279]
Let me hear from you.
R. B.