THE SKY-LARK. 



Thou' '11 break my heart, thou warbling bird, 

 That wantons through the flowering thorn ; 



Thou minds me o' departed joys, 

 Departed — never to return ! 



Aft ha'e I roved by bonnie Doon, 



To see the rose and woodbine twine ; 

 And ilka bird sang o' its luve. 



And fondly sae did I o' mine. 

 Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, 



Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree ; 

 And my fause lover stole my rose, 



But, ah ! he left the thorn wi' me." 



And in his " Elegy on Captain Mathew Henderson " (although 

 the lark is not specially mentioned), the same close observation 

 of his feathered teachers is seen — 



" Mourn, ye wee songsters o' the wood; 

 Ye grouse that crap the heather bud ; 

 Ye curlews calling through a clud, 



Ye whistling plover ; 

 And mourn, ye whirring paitrick brood ! 



He's gane for ever. 



Mourn, sooty coots, and speckled teals, 

 Ye fisher-herons, watching eels, 

 Ye duck and drake, wi airy wheels 



Circling the lake ; 

 Ye bitterns, till the quagmire reels, 



Rair for his sake. 



Mourn, clamoring craiks at close o' day, 

 'Mang fields o' flowering clover gay ; 

 And, when ye wing your annual way 



Frae our cauld shore, 

 Tell thae far warids wha lies in clay, 



Wham we deplore. 



Ye houlcts, frae your ivy bower, 

 In some auld tree or eldritch tower, 

 What time the moon, wi' silent glower, 



Sets up her horn, 

 Wail through the dreary midnight hour 



Till waukrife morn !" 



Nor could he write an elegy on " Tarn Tamson " without the 

 birds — 



" Rejoice, ye birring paitricks a\ 

 Ye cootie moorcoocks crousely craw. 

 Ye maukins cock your fud fu' braw 



Withouten dread ; 

 Your mortal foe is now awa', 



Tarn Tamson's dead. " 



