Alexandria Gazette & Advertiser

POETRY.

From the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.

Gentlemen--Happy to discover by the compliment you have recently paid to a late production of my muse, that common sense and old-fashioned feelings may yet be expressed in old-fashioned verse, and not render the author liable to the charge of lunacy, you will find herewith accompanied an ode on the birth of Burns; intended, when composed, to have been recited before a select party, who were to meet for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary birth day of auld Scotia's sweetest bard. Unforeseen events, however prevented the assemblage of the company, & the verses of consequence never were recited. By inserting them, they may possibly meet the eye and cheer the heart of the once 'Bonny Jean of Ayr.'

THE BIRTH OF BURNS.

AN ODE.

The guardian spirit of the lyre
O'er Europe wing'd her way,
And bade the baby muse retire,
And hush the childish lay:

For long the chasten'd ear of taste
Had sounds discordant bore:
And genius wept to view the waste
By folly done to lore:

And ignorance, with insulting tongue,
Vaunted the idle song he sung.

The goddess saw 't was venial all--
The sycophantic strain,
That only knew to rise or fail,
As sprung the hope of gain;

As wealth and power, dictators proud,
The fawning minstrel rul'd,
So follow'd he the motley crowd,
To vile subservience school'd:

Debas'd the spirit God had given,
And paid to earth the debt of heaven.

Twas now o'er Albyn's hills she soar'd,
And paus'd to list the lay
The soul of Independence pour'd
In penury's darkest day.

"In thee shall poesy's spirit dwell!"
Was straight the goddess' vow;
And, 'lo! on Burns her mantle fell,
And deck'd him at the plough--

Alas! his eye, that beam so blest,
Fell on the 'dying Daisy's' breast!

Prophetic strains o'er that lone flower
His gentle spirit sung--
Untimely nipt in luckless hour,
Bright, blooming, beauteous, young

His And the Daisy's fate were one
Life's fitful dream is o'er:
The shaft of fate its worst hath done.
And Scotia's bard's no more:

Immortal strains to him are given;
And Burns his 'Mary' chaunts in Heaven,

Spirit of Scotia's proudest lay!
This social circle greet;
May mutual love our bosoms sway
And all in friendship meet;

The sons of Albyn hither met,
To celebrate thy birth,
Can ne'er themselves or thee forget,
In weal, in woe, or mirth:

And well Columbia's offspring prize
The bard who could a slave despise,

And thou, late partner of his breast,
Accept from friends away,
The wish, that thou and thine be blest
Throughout life's latest day:

And from the bard of western skies
Accept the fervent prayer,
That flowers in every path may rise
For 'bonny Jean of Ayr!'

And may her bairns e'er worthy prove
Of Robby's fame, and Jean's love,

BOSTON BARD,