If you rattle along like your mistress’s tongue,
Your speed will outrival the dart:
But, a fly for your load, you’ll break down on the road
If your stuff has the rot, like her heart.


LXVII.

LINES

TO JOHN RANKINE.

[These lines were said to have been written by the poet to Rankine, of Adamhill, with orders to forward them when he died.]

He who of Rankine sang lies stiff and dead,
And a green grassy hillock hides his head;
Alas! alas! a devilish change indeed.


LXVIII.