THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT[*]
My loved, my honored, much respected friend![1]
No mercenary bard his homage pays;
With honest pride I scorn each selfish end,
My dearest meed, a friend's esteem and praise:
To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays, 5
The lowly train in life's sequestered scene;
The native feelings strong, the guileless ways;
What Aikin in a cottage would have been;
Ah! tho' his worth unknown, far happier there, I ween![2]
November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh;[3] 10
The short'ning winter-day is near a close;
The miry beasts retreating frae[4] the pleugh;[5]
The black'ning trains o' craws[6] to their repose:
The toil-worn Cotter frae his labor goes,
This night his weekly moil[7] is at an end, 15
Collects his spades, his mattocks,[8] and his hoes,
Hoping the morn[9] in ease and rest to spend,
And weary, o'er the moor, his course does homeward[10] bend.
At length his lonely cot appears in view,
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree; 20
Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher[11] through
To meet their dad, wi' flichterin'[12] noise and glee.
His wee bit ingle,[13] blinkin bonilie,[14]
His clean hearth-stane,[15] his thrifty wine's smile,
The lisping infant prattling on his knee, 25
Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile,[16]
And makes him quite forget his labor and his toil,
Belyve the elder bairns come drapping in,[17]
At service out, amang the farmers roun';
Some ca'[18] the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin 30
A cannie errand to a neebor town:[19]
Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown,
In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e,[20]
Comes hame, perhaps, to shew a braw[21] new gown,
Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee,[22] 35
To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.
With joy unfeigned brothers and sisters meet,
And each for other's weelfare kindly spiers:[23]
The social hours, swift-winged, unnoticed fleet;
Each tells the uncos[24] that he sees or hears. 40
The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years;
Anticipation forward points the view;
The mother wi' her needle and her sheers[25]
Gars auld claes look amaist as weel 's the new;[26]
The father mixes a' wi' admonition due. 45
Their master's and their mistress's command
The younkers[27] a' are warned to obey;
And mind their labors wi' an eydent[28] hand,
And ne'er, though out o' sight, to jauk[29] or play:
"And O! be sure to fear the Lord alway, 50
And mind your duty, duly, morn and night;
Lest in temptation's path ye gang[30] astray,
Implore His counsel and assisting might:
They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright!"
But hark! a rap comes gently to the door; 55
Jenny, wha kens[31] the meaning o' the same,
Tells how a neebor[32] lad came o'er the moor
To do some errands, and convoy her hame.
The wily mother sees the conscious flame
Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek; 60
With heart-struck, anxious care, inquires his name,
While Jenny hafflins[33] is afraid to speak;
Weel pleased the mother hears, it's nae[34]
wild, worthless rake.
With kindly welcome Jenny brings him ben;[35]
A strappin' youth, he takes the mother's eye; 65
Blithe Jenny sees the visit's no ill taen;[36]
The father cracks[37] of horses, pleughs, and kye.[38]
The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy,
But blate and laithfu',[39] scarce can weel behave;
The mother, wi' a woman's wiles,[40] can spy 70
What makes the youth sae[41] bashfu' and sae grave;
Weel-pleased to think her bairn's respected like the lave.[42]
O happy love! where love like this is found:
O heart-felt raptures! bliss beyond compare!
I've paced much this weary, mortal round, 75
And sage experience bids me this declare,—
"If Heaven a draught of heav'nly pleasure spare,
One cordial, in this melancholy vale,
'T is when a youthful, loving, modest pair
In other's arms breathe out the tender tale 80
Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the ev'ning gale."