The poem
FOR lords or kings I dinna mourn, E’en let them die-for that they’re born: But oh! prodigious to reflec’! A Towmont, sirs, is gane to wreck! O Eighty-eight, in thy sma’ space, What dire events hae taken place! Of what enjoyments thou hast reft us! In what a pickle thou has left us!
The Spanish empire’s tint a head, And my auld teethless, Bawtie’s dead: The tulyie’s teugh ’tween Pitt and Fox, And ’tween our Maggie’s twa wee cocks; The tane is game, a bluidy devil, But to the hen-birds unco civil; The tither’s something dour o’ treadin, But better stuff ne’er claw’d a middin.
Ye ministers, come mount the poupit, An’ cry till ye be hearse an’ roupit, For Eighty-eight, he wished you weel, An’ gied ye a’ baith gear an’ meal; E’en monc a plack, and mony a peck, Ye ken yoursels, for little feck!
Ye bonie lasses, dight your e’en, For some o’ you hae tint a frien’; In Eighty-eight, ye ken, was taen, What ye’ll ne’er hae to gie again. Observe the very nowt an’ sheep, How dowff an’ daviely they creep; Nay, even the yirth itsel’ does cry, For E’nburgh wells are grutten dry.
O Eighty-nine, thou’s but a bairn, An’ no owre auld, I hope, to learn! Thou beardless boy, I pray tak care, Thou now hast got thy Daddy’s chair; Nae handcuff’d, mizl’d, hap-shackl’d Regent, But, like himsel, a full free agent, Be sure ye follow out the plan Nae waur than he did, honest man! As muckle better as you can.January, 1, 1789.