Nae heathen name shall I prefix,Frae Pindus or Parnassus;Auld Reekie dings them a’ to sticks,For rhyme-inspiring lasses.4
Jove’s tunefu’ dochters three times threeMade Homer deep their debtor;But, gien the body half an e’e,Nine Ferriers wad done better!8
Last day my mind was in a bog,Down George’s Street I stoited;A creeping cauld prosaic fogMy very sense doited.12
Do what I dought to set her free,My saul lay in the mire;Ye turned a neuk—I saw your e’e—She took the wing like fire!16
The mournfu’ sang I here enclose,In gratitude I send you,And pray, in rhyme as weel as prose,A’ gude things may attend you!20