[ { "title": "306. Election Ballad at close of Contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "FINTRY, my stay in wordly strife,", "Friend o’ my muse, friend o’ my life,", " Are ye as idle’s I am?", "Come then, wi’ uncouth kintra fleg,", "O’er Pegasus I’ll fling my leg,", " And ye shall see me try him.", "", "", "But where shall I go rin a ride,", "That I may splatter nane beside?", " I wad na be uncivil:", "In manhood’s various paths and ways", "There’s aye some doytin’ body strays,", " And I ride like the devil.", "", "", "Thus I break aff wi’ a’ my birr,", "And down yon dark, deep alley spur,", " Where Theologics daunder:", "Alas! curst wi’ eternal fogs,", "And damn’d in everlasting bogs,", " As sure’s the creed I’ll blunder!", "", "", "I’ll stain a band, or jaup a gown,", "Or rin my reckless, guilty crown", " Against the haly door:", "Sair do I rue my luckless fate,", "When, as the Muse an’ Deil wad hae’t,", " I rade that road before.", "", "", "Suppose I take a spurt, and mix", "Amang the wilds o’ Politics—", " Electors and elected,", "Where dogs at Court (sad sons of bitches!)", "Septennially a madness touches,", " Till all the land’s infected.", "", "", "All hail! Drumlanrig’s haughty Grace,", "Discarded remnant of a race", " Once godlike-great in story;", "Thy forbears’ virtues all contrasted,", "The very name of Douglas blasted,", " Thine that inverted glory!", "", "", "Hate, envy, oft the Douglas bore,", "But thou hast superadded more,", " And sunk them in contempt;", "Follies and crimes have stain’d the name,", "But, Queensberry, thine the virgin claim,", " From aught that’s good exempt!", "", "", "I’ll sing the zeal Drumlanrig bears,", "Who left the all-important cares", " Of princes, and their darlings:", "And, bent on winning borough touns,", "Came shaking hands wi’ wabster-loons,", " And kissing barefit carlins.", "", "", "Combustion thro’ our boroughs rode,", "Whistling his roaring pack abroad", " Of mad unmuzzled lions;", "As Queensberry blue and buff unfurl’d,", "And Westerha’ and Hopetoun hurled", " To every Whig defiance.", "", "", "But cautious Queensberry left the war,", "Th’ unmanner’d dust might soil his star,", " Besides, he hated bleeding:", "But left behind him heroes bright,", "Heroes in C&æsarean fight,", " Or Ciceronian pleading.", "", "", "O for a throat like huge Mons-Meg,", "To muster o’er each ardent Whig", " Beneath Drumlanrig’s banners;", "Heroes and heroines commix,", "All in the field of politics,", " To win immortal honours.", "", "", "M’Murdo and his lovely spouse,", "(Th’ enamour’d laurels kiss her brows!)", " Led on the Loves and Graces:", "She won each gaping burgess’ heart,", "While he, sub rosa, played his part", " Amang their wives and lasses.", "", "", "Craigdarroch led a light-arm’d core,", "Tropes, metaphors, and figures pour,", " Like Hecla streaming thunder:", "Glenriddel, skill’d in rusty coins,", "Blew up each Tory’s dark designs,", " And bared the treason under.", "", "", "In either wing two champions fought;", "Redoubted Staig, who set at nought", " The wildest savage Tory;", "And Welsh who ne’er yet flinch’d his ground,", "High-wav’d his magnum-bonum round", " With Cyclopeian fury.", "", "", "Miller brought up th’ artillery ranks,", "The many-pounders of the Banks,", " Resistless desolation!", "While Maxwelton, that baron bold,", "’Mid Lawson’s port entrench’d his hold,", " And threaten’d worse damnation.", "", "", "To these what Tory hosts oppos’d", "With these what Tory warriors clos’d", " Surpasses my descriving;", "Squadrons, extended long and large,", "With furious speed rush to the charge,", " Like furious devils driving.", "", "", "What verse can sing, what prose narrate,", "The butcher deeds of bloody Fate,", " Amid this mighty tulyie!", "Grim Horror girn’d, pale Terror roar’d,", "As Murder at his thrapple shor’d,", " And Hell mix’d in the brulyie.", "", "", "As Highland craigs by thunder cleft,", "When lightnings fire the stormy lift,", " Hurl down with crashing rattle;", "As flames among a hundred woods,", "As headlong foam from a hundred floods,", " Such is the rage of Battle.", "", "", "The stubborn Tories dare to die;", "As soon the rooted oaks would fly", " Before th’ approaching fellers:", "The Whigs come on like Ocean’s roar,", "When all his wintry billows pour", " Against the Buchan Bullers.", "", "", "Lo, from the shades of Death’s deep night,", "Departed Whigs enjoy the fight,", " And think on former daring:", "The muffled murtherer of Charles", "The Magna Charter flag unfurls,", " All deadly gules its bearing.", "", "", "Nor wanting ghosts of Tory fame;", "Bold Scrimgeour follows gallant Graham;", " Auld Covenanters shiver—", "Forgive! forgive! much-wrong’d Montrose!", "Now Death and Hell engulph thy foes,", " Thou liv’st on high for ever.", "", "", "Still o’er the field the combat burns,", "The Tories, Whigs, give way by turns;", " But Fate the word has spoken:", "For woman’s wit and strength o’man,", "Alas! can do but what they can;", " The Tory ranks are broken.", "", "", "O that my een were flowing burns!", "My voice, a lioness that mourns", " Her darling cubs’ undoing!", "That I might greet, that I might cry,", "While Tories fall, while Tories fly,", " And furious Whigs pursuing!", "", "", "What Whig but melts for good Sir James,", "Dear to his country, by the names,", " Friend, Patron, Benefactor!", "Not Pulteney’s wealth can Pulteney save;", "And Hopetoun falls, the generous, brave;", " And Stewart, bold as Hector.", "", "", "Thou, Pitt, shalt rue this overthrow,", "And Thurlow growl a curse of woe,", " And Melville melt in wailing:", "Now Fox and Sheridan rejoice,", "And Burke shall sing, “O Prince, arise!", " Thy power is all-prevailing!”", "", "", "For your poor friend, the Bard, afar", "He only hears and sees the war,", " A cool spectator purely!", "So, when the storm the forest rends,", "The robin in the hedge descends,", " And sober chirps securely.", "", "", "Now, for my friends’ and brethren’s sakes,", "And for my dear-lov’d Land o’ Cakes,", " I pray with holy fire:", "Lord, send a rough-shod troop o’ Hell", "O’er a’ wad Scotland buy or sell,", " To grind them in the mire!" ], "linecount": "162" } ]