Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-03-14
A TALE.
Robert Burns.


This truth fand honest Tam O Shanter,
AS he frae Ayr ae night did canter,
(Auld Ayr, wham neer town surpasses,
For honest men and bonnie lasses.)
O Tam hadst thou but been sac wise,
As taen thy ain wife Kate's advice
She tauld thee weel thou vast skellum,
A blethering, clustering, drunken blellum;
That frae November till October,
Ae market day thou was ma sober;
That lka melder, WI the miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had ser;
That ev'ry naig was cad shoe on,
The smith and thee gat roaring fou on;
That at the Lords house, ev'n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi Kirton Jean till Monday.
She prophesyd that, late or soon,
Thou would be found deep drown'd in Doom
Or catchd wi warloCks in the mirk,
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.
All, gentle danes it gars me greet,
To think how monte counsels sweet,
How mony lengthend, sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despses
But to our tale: Ae market night,
Tam had got planted unco right;
Fast by an ingle, beezing finely,
WI roaming swats, that drank divney;
And at his elbow, Souter Johnny,
His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony;
Tam lo'ed him like vera brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither.
The night drave on wi sangs and catter;
And ay the ale was growing better:
The landlady and Tam grew gracious,
WI favors, secret, sweet, and precious:
The souter tauld his queerest stories;
The landlords laugh was ready chorus;
The storm without might rair and rustic,
Tam did ma mind the storm a whistle.
Care, mad to see a man sac happy,
Fen drownd himself amang the happy:
As bees flee hame wi ladies' O. treasure,
The minutes wingd their way wi pleasure;
Kings may be best but Tam was glorious
Ger a the ills o life victorious
But pleasures are like peoples spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow-falls in the river
a moment white then melts forever
Or like the borealis race,
That fit ere you can point their place;
Or like the ranbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm. -
Nae man can tether time or tide -
The hour approaches Tam maun ride
That hour, O nights black arch the key-stane
That dreary hour he mounts his beast in;
And sic a night he talks the road in,
As neer poor sinner was abroad in.
The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last
The rafting show'ts rose on the blast;
The speedy CLEANS the darkness swalow'd;
Loud, deep, and lang, the thunder beloved:
That night, child might understand,
The Dell had business on his hand.
Weel mounted on his gray mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,
Tam skelpit on thro' dub and mre,
Despising wind, and rain, and fire;
Whites holding fast his guide blue bonnet;
Whites grooming DER some auld Scots sonnet
Whites glow ring round wi prudent cares,
Lest bogles catch him unawares;
Kirk Alloway was drawing nigh,
WHARF ghaists and houlets nightly cry
BY this time he was cross the ford,
WHARF in the shaw, the chapman smoord;
And past the birks and meikle stane,
WHARF drunken Charlie brak's neckbane
And thro' the whins, and by the cairn,
WHARF hunters fand the murdered BARN
And near the thorn, aboon the well,
WHARF Mungo's mither .hang'd herself
Before him Doom pours all his floods
The doubling storm roars thro' the woods;
The lightnings flash from pole to pole
Near and more near the thunders roll
When, glimmering thro the groanng trees,
Kirk-Alloway seem'd in beeze;
Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing;
And loud resounded mirth and dancing
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