The beauty of Chloris has added many charms to Scottish song; but that which has increased the reputation of the poet has lessened the fame of the man. Chloris was one of those ladies who believed in the dispensing power of beauty, and thought that love should be under no demure restraint, and own no law but that of nature. Burns sometimes thought in the same way himself; and it is not wonderful therefore that the poet should celebrate the charms of a liberal lady who was willing to reward his strains, and who gave him many nocturnal opportunities of catching inspiration from her presence. O WHA IS SHE THAT LO'ES ME. O wha is she that lo'es me, O sweet is she that lo'es me, O that's the queen o' womankind, And ne'er a ane to peer her. If thou shalt meet a lassie, In grace and beauty charming, Ere while thy breast sae warming, O that's the queen o' womankind, If thou hadst heard her talking, But her, by thee is slighted, O that's the lassie o' my heart, O that's the queen o' womankind, If thou hast met this fair one; If When frae her thou hast parted, every other fair one, But her, thou hast deserted, And thou art broken-hearted ; O that's the lassie o' my heart, No lassie ever dearer; O that's the queen o' womankind, This song was found among the manuscripts of Burns -the air of "Morag," to which it is sung, the poet was passionately fond of. The chorus is an encumbrance, as all choruses are; but here I cannot dispense with it, for the continuation of the sense requires its presence. The chorus, in lyric composition, is capable of great diversity. The story and the sentiment of the song might be infused into it. THE YOUNG HIGHLAND ROVER. Loud blaw the frosty breezes, The snaws the mountains cover; Since my young Highland Rover The trees now naked groaning, Shall soon wi' leaves be hinging, The birdies dowie moaning, Shall a' be blithly singing, And every flower be springing. "The Young Highland Rover” is imagined to have been Prince Charles Stuart. Burns was inoculated with Jacobitism during his northern tour, and his Muse in one of her retrospective fits conceived the present song. The Stuarts have all gone down in sorrow to the grave; and over their unhappy dust the delicate benevolence of George the Fourth has placed a noble monu ment. LOUIS, WHAT RECK I BY THEE? Louis, what reck I by thee, Or Geordie on his ocean? Let her crown my love her law, "Louis, what reck I by thee?" is one of the shortest and happiest of all the lyrics of Burns. It is an early composition: the King of France was on his tottering throne, Geordie was reigning on his ocean, and Jean was in the bloom of youth, when the poet owned her love for his law, took her bosom for his throne, and did homage. Geordie still reigns on his ocean, and none of the four winds of heaven can waft an enemy against him who can brave him for a moment. |