come speed, [must not]
The wounds I must hide that will soon be my dead. [death]

The day comes to me, but delight brings me nane;
The night comes to me, but my rest it is gane;
I wander my lane, like a night-troubled ghaist, [alone, ghost]
And I sigh as my heart it wad burst in my breast.

O had she but been of a lower degree,
I then might hae hoped she wad smiled upon me;
O how past descriving had then been my bliss, [describing]
As now my distraction no words can express!

_O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast_, besides being one of the most
exquisite of his songs, has a pathetic interest from the circumstances
under which it was composed. During the last few months of his life, a
young girl called Jessie Lewars, sister of one of his colleagues in
the excise, came much to his house and was of great service to Mrs.
Burns and him in his last illness. One day he offered to write new
verses to any tune she might play him. She sat down and played over
several times the melody of an old song, beginning,

The robin came to the wren's nest,
And keekit in, and keekit in.

The following lines were the characteristic result:

O, WERT THOU IN THE CAULD BLAST

O, wert thou in the cauld blast, [cold]
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt, [direction]
I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee,
Or did misfortune's bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy bield should be my bosom, [shelter]
To share it a', to share it a'.

Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a paradise,
If thou wert there, if thou wert there.
Or were I monarch o' the globe,
Wi' thee to reign, wi' thee to reign,
The brightest jewel in my crown
Wad be my queen, wad be my queen.

This group may well close with his great hymn of general allegiance to
the sex.

GREEN GROW THE RASHES

Green grow the rashes, O,
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent amang the lasses, O!

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',
In ev'ry hour that passes, O;
What signifies the life o' man,
An' 'twere na for the lasses, O.

The warly race may riches chase, [worldly]
An' riches s