The piper loud and louder blew ; The dancers quick and quicker flew ; They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit, And coost her duddies to the wark, And linket at it in her sark! Now Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans, 145 150 A' plump and strapping in their teens; Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linnen! 1 155 That ance were plush, o' guid blue hair, I wad hae gi'en them off my hurdies, For ae blink o' the bonie burdies! But wither'd beldams, auld and droll, 160 But Tam kend what was what fu' brawlie. 1 "The manufacturer's term for a fine linen, woven in a reed of 1,200 divisions" (CROMEK). 2 "She was a winsome wench and wally, ALLAN RAMSAY'S The Three Bonnets. 3 The southern part of Ayrshire, bordering the Firth of Clyde. 4 A woman named Katie Stevens, who bore the reputation of a witch, is thought to have been in Burns's mind when he celebrated the exploits of Nannie. Her cutty-sark, o' Paisley 1 harn, 175 But here my Muse her wing maun cour; 180 To sing how Nannie lap and flang, 185 And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main : Till first ae caper, syne anither, Tam tint his reason a' thegither, And roars out "Weel done, Cutty-sark!" And in an instant all was dark! 190 And scarcely had he Maggie rallied, When out the hellish legion sallied. As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke When plundering herds assail their byke, 3 195 When pop! she starts before their nose, As eager runs the market crowd, When "Catch the thief!" resounds aloud;6 1 Paisley, Scotland, is noted for its linen and other woven fabrics, especially shawls. 2 A pound Scots was twenty pence sterling. Nannie's garment cost about eighty cents, all her "grannie's" riches. 3 To begin to bark on view or scent of the game. 6 Read in Dickens's Oliver Twist, vol. i., chap. x., the exciting description of the hue and cry of a London mob chasing a supposed thief. So Maggie runs, the witches follow, Wi' monie an eldritch skreech and hollow. Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin! Think, ye may buy the joys o'er dear, Remember Tam o' Shanter's mare.3 200 205 210 215 220 1 "It is a well-known fact that witches, or any evil spirits, have no power to follow a poor wight any farther than the middle of the next running stream. It may be proper likewise to mention to the benighted traveler that when he falls in with bogles (goblins), whatever danger may be in going forward, there is much more hazard in turning back" (BURNS). 2 Tam o' Shanter's ride has exercised the talents of more than one artist as a fit subject for drawing, painting, or sculpture. 3 The mare has her counterpart in old Gunpowder, the famous steed ridden by Ichabod Crane. GENERAL NOTES ON TAM O' SHANTER. Burns thought this poem his best. John Campbell Shairp, in his "Life of Burns" (English Men of Letters Series), gives a pleasant account of the creation of the famous "tale." "The poem," he says, was the work of one day, of which Mrs. Burns retained a vivid recollection. Her husband had spent the most part of the day by the riverside, and in the afternoon she joined him with her two children. He was busily engaged 'crooning to himsel;' and Mrs. Burns, perceiving that her presence was an interruption, loitered behind with her little ones among the broom. Her attention was presently attracted by the strange and wild gesticulations of the bard, who was now seen at some distance. He was reciting very loud, and with tears rolling down his cheeks, the animated verses which he had just conceived: 'Now Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans, A' plump and strapping in their teens.' 'I wish ye had seen him,' said his wife. He was in such ecstasy that the tears were happing down his cheeks.' . . . The poet, having committed the verses to writing on the top of his sod dike above the water, came into the house and read them immediately in high triumph at the fireside." The tetrameter in which the poem is written adapts itself readily to the rapid movement which gives such excitement to the whole narrative. Notice the effect, both lively and ludicrous, of the double, and, in two couplets, triple, rimes. Compare the witches of Alloway Kirk with those described in "Macbeth" and in "Faust." Compare Tam's rapid ride with the galloping made famous in verses by Scott, Browning, T. B. Read, and other poets. MAN WAS MADE TO MOURN.' A DIRGE.2 WHEN chill November's surly blast I spy'd a man, whose agèd step His face was furrow'd o'er with years, And hoary was his hair.3 5 1 "Much of the situation and sentiment of this poem was suggested by Shenstone's Seventh Elegy" (ROBERTSON). 66 2 Is the poem strictly a dirge"? 3 "I had an old granduncle, with whom my mother lived awhile in her girlish years. The good old man (for such he was) was long blind ere he died, during which time his enjoyment was to sit down and cry, while my mother would sing the simple old song, The Life and Age of Man. It is this way of thinking, it is these melancholy truths, that make religion so precious to the poor, miserable children of men" (BURNS's letter to Mrs. Dunlop, August 16, 1788). Part of the song to which Burns referred is as follows: "On January the sixteenth day, As I did ly alone, With many a sigh and sob did say, |