Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou? Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,1 Or youthful pleasure's rage? Or, haply, prest with cares and woes, IO 1 "Does wealth or power thy weary step constrain?" (SHENSTONE'S Seventh Elegy). 2 "Not all the force of manhood's active might" (Shenstone), 1 "Oppressed with two weak evils, Age and Hunger" (SHAKESPEARE'S As You Like It, ii. 7). 2" By skill divine inwoven in our frame" (YOUNG'S Night Thoughts, Book VII.). 3 " Inhumanity is caught from man (Night Thoughts, Book V.). "He [Robert] 4 The poem was composed in 1784. Gilbert Burns says: used to remark to me that he could not well conceive a more mortifying picture of human life than a man seeking work. In casting about in his mind how this sentiment might be brought forward, the elegy, Man was Made to Mourn, was composed." The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow, From pomp and pleasure torn ; That weary-laden mourn!1 85 Compare this melancholy view of old age with Southey's cheerful poem, The Old Man's Comforts, beginning: "You are old, Father William,' the young man cried; 'The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man : 1 "This celebrated song was conceived by the poet during a storm of rain and lightning among the wilds of Glenken, in Galloway" (Sir HARRIS NICOLAS). 2 "There is a tradition that the air Hey Tuttie Tattie was Robert Bruce's march at the battle of Bannockburn. This thought, in my yesternight's evening walk, warmed me to such a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of liberty and independence, which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, fitted to the air, that one might suppose to be the gallant royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning" (BURNS to Mr. Thomson, September, 1793). At the suggestion of Mr. Thomson, Burns made alterations in the last line of every stanza, to suit the song to the air Lewis Gordon. The second version is seldom sung. |