"Auld Lang Syne" Heresy

[macwilkin]

Of course, Burns did write in standard English as well...witness one of the most beautiful of his verses found in the middle of his epic Tam O'Shanter:

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white - then melts forever;
Or like the Borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evaneshing amid the storm.-

One of my favourite of Burns's lesser-known poems is his Impromptu on Mrs. [Maria] Riddell's Birthday, written in 1793:

Old Winter, with his frosty beard,
Thus once to Jove his prayer preferred:
"What have I done of all the year,
To bear this hated doom severe?

My cheerless suns no pleasure know;
Night's horrid car drags, dreary slow;
My dismal months no joys are crowning,
But spleeny English hanging, drowning.

"Now Jove, for once be mighty civil.
To counterbalance all this evil;
Give me, and I've no more to say,
Give me Maria's natal day!
That brilliant gift shall so enrich me,
Spring, Summer, Autumn, cannot match me."
"'Tis done!" says Jove; so ends my story,
And Winter once rejoiced in glory.

Let's keep this going...

T.