364 THE SKY-LARK. 



And with " Phillis the Fair" he also couples the skylark, for — 



" While larks, with little wing, 



Fanned the pure air, 



Tasting the breathing spring, 



Forth I did fare ; 

 Gay the sun's golden eye 

 Peep'd o'er the mountains high ; 

 Such thy morn ! did I cry 

 " Phillis the Fair." 



He could not even write in praise of his kind patron without 

 introducing the lark : 



" I crave thy friendship at thy kind command ; 

 But there are such who court the tuneful Nine — 

 Heavens ! should the branded character be mine ! 

 Whose verse in Manhood's pride sublimely flows, 

 Yet, vilest reptiles in their begging prose, 

 Mark how their lofty, independent spirit 

 Soars on the spurning of injured merit ! 

 Seek not the proofs in private life to And ; 

 Pity the best of words should be but wind ! 

 So, to heaven's gate the lark's shrill sow/ ascends, 

 But grovelling in the earth, the carol ends." 



Nor is it forgotten in his " Holy Fair," when face to face with 

 Nature — 



" Upon a simmer Sunday morn, 



When Nature's face is fair, 

 I walked forth to view the corn, 



And snuff the caller air ; 

 The rising sun owre (Ralston muirs 



Wi' glorious light was glintin'; 

 The hares were hirplin' down the furs ; 

 The laverocks they were chantin' 



Fu' sweet that day." 



In his " Humble Petition of Bruar Water," the same love 

 for the lark is seen — 



" The sober laverock warbling wild 



Shall to the skies aspire ; 

 The gowdspink, music's gayest child, 



Shall sweetly join the choir ; 

 The blackbird strong, the lintwhite clear, 



The mavis mild and mellow ; 

 The robin pensive Autumn cheer 



In all her locks of yellow." 



But we need not wonder at his love for the lark, and for wild 

 birds generally, for in the opening lines of his " Brigs of 

 Ayr" he says they were his teachers — he calls himself 



" The simple Bard, rough at the rustic plough, 

 Learning his tuneful trade from every hough ; 



