POEM OF THE DAY

TWO songs by Robert Burns, both set to music, show his appreciation of the landscapes of Ayrshire and southwest Scotland, and how he uses this frame of nature to explore and expound his state of mind, sometimes in the grip of love; sometimes in dissatisfaction with himself or his economic struggle.

THE LAZY MIST

The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill,

Concealing the course of the dark winding rill;

How languid the scenes, late so sprightly, appear,

As Autumn to Winter resigns the pale year.

The forests are leafless, the meadows are brown,

And all the gay foppery of Summer is flown:

Apart let me wander, apart let me muse, How quick Time is flying, how keen

Fate pursues.

How long have I liv’d – but how much liv’d in vain;

How little of life’s scanty span may remain:

What aspects, old Time, in his progress has worn;

What ties, cruel Fate, in my bosom has torn.

How foolish, or worse, till our summit is gain’d!

And downward, how weaken’d, how darken’d, how pain’d!

Life is not worth having, with all it can give,

For something beyond it poor man sure must live.

THE BRAES O’ BALLOCHMYLE

The Catrine Woods were yellow seen, The flowers decay’d on Catrine lee, Nae lav’rock sang on hillock green, But Nature sicken’d on the e’e.

Thro’ faded groves Maria sang, Hersel in beauty’s bloom the while, And ae the wild-wood echoes rang, Fareweel the braes o’ Ballochmyle.

Low in your wintry beds, ye flowers, Again ye’ll flourish fresh and fair; Ye birdies dumb, in with’ring bowers, Again ye’ll charm the vocal air.

But here alas! for me nae mair

Shall birdie charm, or floweret smile; Fareweel the bonnie banks of Ayr, Fareweel, fareweel! sweet Ballochmyle!