The poetical works of Robert Fergusson, with biogr intr., notes and glossary by R. Ford

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Page 151 - O ! who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite By bare imagination of a feast?
Page 213 - Where be your gibes now ? your gambols ? your songs ? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table in a roar ? Not one now, to mock your own grinning?
Page 14 - The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, And the free maids that weave their thread with bones, Do use to chant it ; it is silly sooth, And dallies with the innocence of love, Like the old age.
Page 12 - Gude faith, he mauna fa' that! For a' that, an' a' that, Their dignities an' a' that, The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth. Are higher rank than a' that. Then let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a' that, That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth. Shall bear the gree, an' a' that. For a
Page xi - CURSE on ungrateful man, that can be pleas'd, And yet can starve the author of the pleasure ! O thou, my elder brother in misfortune, By far my elder brother in the Muses...
Page 191 - When you censure the age, Be cautious and sage, Lest the courtiers offended, should be ; If you mention vice or bribe, 'Tis so pat to all the tribe, Each cries — That was levelld at me.
Page 9 - HAPPY the man who, void of cares and strife, In silken or in leathern purse retains A Splendid Shilling.
Page 13 - While he draws breath, Till his four quarters are bedeckit Wi' gude Braid Claith. On Sabbath-days the barber spark, Whan he has done wi...
Page xlix - No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay, ' No storied urn nor animated bust ;' This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.
Page 59 - Had met wi' sic respect frae me. Mind ye what Sam,' the lying loun ! Has in his Dictionar laid down ? That aits in England are a feast To cow an' horse, an' sican beast, While in Scots ground this growth was common To gust the gab o

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