[
  {
    "title": "185. The Humble Petition of Bruar Water",
    "author": "Robert Burns",
    "lines": [
      "MY lord, I know your noble ear",
      "  Woe ne’er assails in vain;",
      "Embolden’d thus, I beg you’ll hear",
      "  Your humble slave complain,",
      "How saucy Phoebus’ scorching beams,",
      "  In flaming summer-pride,",
      "Dry-withering, waste my foamy streams,",
      "  And drink my crystal tide. 1",
      "",
      "",
      "The lightly-jumping, glowrin’ trouts,",
      "  That thro’ my waters play,",
      "If, in their random, wanton spouts,",
      "  They near the margin stray;",
      "If, hapless chance! they linger lang,",
      "  I’m scorching up so shallow,",
      "They’re left the whitening stanes amang,",
      "  In gasping death to wallow.",
      "",
      "",
      "Last day I grat wi’ spite and teen,",
      "  As poet Burns came by.",
      "That, to a bard, I should be seen",
      "  Wi’ half my channel dry;",
      "A panegyric rhyme, I ween,",
      "  Ev’n as I was, he shor’d me;",
      "But had I in my glory been,",
      "  He, kneeling, wad ador’d me.",
      "",
      "",
      "Here, foaming down the skelvy rocks,",
      "  In twisting strength I rin;",
      "There, high my boiling torrent smokes,",
      "  Wild-roaring o’er a linn:",
      "Enjoying each large spring and well,",
      "  As Nature gave them me,",
      "I am, altho’ I say’t mysel’,",
      "  Worth gaun a mile to see.",
      "",
      "",
      "Would then my noble master please",
      "  To grant my highest wishes,",
      "He’ll shade my banks wi’ tow’ring trees,",
      "  And bonie spreading bushes.",
      "Delighted doubly then, my lord,",
      "  You’ll wander on my banks,",
      "And listen mony a grateful bird",
      "  Return you tuneful thanks.",
      "",
      "",
      "The sober lav’rock, 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.",
      "",
      "",
      "This, too, a covert shall ensure,",
      "  To shield them from the storm;",
      "And coward maukin sleep secure,",
      "  Low in her grassy form:",
      "Here shall the shepherd make his seat,",
      "  To weave his crown of flow’rs;",
      "Or find a shelt’ring, safe retreat,",
      "  From prone-descending show’rs.",
      "",
      "",
      "And here, by sweet, endearing stealth,",
      "  Shall meet the loving pair,",
      "Despising worlds, with all their wealth,",
      "  As empty idle care;",
      "The flow’rs shall vie in all their charms,",
      "  The hour of heav’n to grace;",
      "And birks extend their fragrant arms",
      "  To screen the dear embrace.",
      "",
      "",
      "Here haply too, at vernal dawn,",
      "  Some musing bard may stray,",
      "And eye the smoking, dewy lawn,",
      "  And misty mountain grey;",
      "Or, by the reaper’s nightly beam,",
      "  Mild-chequering thro’ the trees,",
      "Rave to my darkly dashing stream,",
      "  Hoarse-swelling on the breeze.",
      "",
      "",
      "Let lofty firs, and ashes cool,",
      "  My lowly banks o’erspread,",
      "And view, deep-bending in the pool,",
      "  Their shadow’s wat’ry bed:",
      "Let fragrant birks, in woodbines drest,",
      "  My craggy cliffs adorn;",
      "And, for the little songster’s nest,",
      "  The close embow’ring thorn.",
      "",
      "",
      "So may old Scotia’s darling hope,",
      "  Your little angel band",
      "Spring, like their fathers, up to prop",
      "  Their honour’d native land!",
      "So may, thro’ Albion’s farthest ken,",
      "  To social-flowing glasses,",
      "The grace be—“Athole’s honest men,",
      "  And Athole’s bonie lasses!”",
      "",
      "",
      " Note 1. Bruar Falls, in Athole, are exceedingly picturesque and beautiful; but their effect is much impaired by the want of trees and shrubs.—R. B. [back]"
    ],
    "linecount": "89"
  }
]