elly shaws and braes,
Wi' hawthorns gray,
Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays
At close o' day.

Thy rural loves are nature's sel';
Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell;
Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell
O' witchin' love,
That charm that can the strongest quell,
The sternest move.'

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Pronounced in Scots, _shoo_.

CHAPTER XII

RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION

Our survey is now drawing to a close. To say a word upon those
miscellaneous poems that do not fall naturally into any convenient
category for classification is all that remains to be done.

Already attention has been called to the poem on _Content_, when its
purpose was sketched. Though containing many passages of no little power
and beauty, yet as a whole it is heavy and uninteresting. Written during
the time when the glamour of Pope's influence was upon Ramsay, it
exhibits many of Pope's faults without his redeeming features. True, the
characters are drawn with great vigour and distinctive individuality,
but the trail of dulness lies over it, and _Content_ slumbers, with
James Thomson's _chef d'oeuvre_ on _Liberty_, on the top shelf amongst
the spiders. The description of the palace of the goddess Content has,
however, often been praised for its vigorous scene-painting--

'Amidst the glade the sacred palace stood,
The architecture not so fine as good;
Nor scrimp, nor gousty, regular and plain,
Plain were the columns which the roof sustain;
An easy greatness in the whole was found,
Where all that nature wanted did abound:
But here no beds are screen'd with rich brocade,
Nor fuel logs in silver grates are laid;
Nor broken China bowls disturb the joy
Of waiting handmaid, or the running boy;
Nor in the cupboard heaps of plate are rang'd,
To be with each splenetic fashion changed.'

_The Prospect of Plenty_ is another poem wherein Ramsay allows his
reasoning powers to run away with him. As Chalmers remarks: 'To the
chimerical hopes of inexhaustible riches from the project of the South
Sea bubble, the poet now opposes the certain prospect of national wealth
from the prosecution of the fisheries in the North Sea--thus judiciously
pointing the attention of his countrymen to the solid fruits of patient
industry, and contrasting these with the airy projects of idle
speculation.' The poem p