Tune-" LOGAN WATER." O, LOGAN, Sweetly didst thou glide, Again the merry month o' May, The bees hum round the breathing flowers: And evening's tears are tears of joy : Within yon milk-white hawthorn bush, O wae upon you, men o' state, Do you know the following beautiful little fragment, in Witherspoon's collection of Scots songs? Air-" HUGHIE GRAHAM". "O gin my love were yon red rose, "Ye mind na, 'mid your cruel joys E.. ' "Oh, there beyond expression blest "I'd feast on beauty a' the night; This thought is inexpressibly beautiful; and quite, so far as I know, original. It is too short for a song, else I would forswear you altogether, unless you gave it a place. I have often tried to eke a stanza to it, but in vain. After balancing myself for a musing five minutes, on the hind-legs of my elbow-chair, I produced the following. The verses are far inferior to the foregoing, I frankly confess; but if worthy of insertion at all, they might be first in place; as every poet, who knows any thing of his trade, will husband his best thoughts for a concluding stroke. O were my love yon lilack fair, Wi' purple blossoms to the spring; When wearied on my little wing. How I wad mourn, when it was torn When youthfu' May its bloom renew'd. No. No. XXVI. MR. THOMSON TO MR. BURNS. Monday 1st July, 1793. I AM extremely sorry, my good Sir, that any thing should happen to unhinge you. The times are terribly out of tune, and when harmony will be restored, heaven knows. The first book of songs just published, will be dispatched to you along with this. Let me be favoured with your opinion of it frankly and freely. I shall certainly give a place to the song you have written for the Quaker's Wife; it is quite inchanting. Pray will you return the list of songs, with such airs added to it as you think ought to be included. The business now rests entirely on myself, the gentlemen who originally agreed to join in the speculation having requested to be off. No matter, a loser I cannot be. The superior excellence of the work, will create a general demand for it, as soon as it is pro perly perly known. And were the sale even slower than it promises to be, I should be somewhat compensated for my labour, by the pleasure I shall receive from the music. I cannot express how much I am obliged to you for the exquisite new songs you are sending me; but thanks, my friend, are a poor return for what you have done: as I shall be benefited by the publication, you must suffer me to inclose a small mark of my gratitude,* and to repeat it afterwards when I find it covenient. Do not return it, for by heaven if you do, our correspondence is at an end: and though this would be no loss to you, it would mar the publication, which under your auspices cannot fail to be respectable and interesting. Wednesday morning. I thank you for your delicate additional verses to the old fragment, and for your excellent song to Logan water: Thomson's truly elegant one will follow for the English singer. Your apostrophe to statesmen, is admirable, but I am not sure if it is quite suitable *£5. |