y always fulfills
Bagehot's requirement that poetry should be "memorable and emphatic,
intense, and _soon over_."

TAM O' SHANTER

A TALE

Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke.
GARVIN DOUGLAS.

When chapman billies leave the street, [pedlar fellows]
And drouthy neibors neibors meet, [thirsty]
As market-days are wearing late,
An' folk begin to tak the gate; [road]
While we sit bousing at the nappy, [ale]
An' getting fou and unco happy, [full, mighty]
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps, and styles, [bogs, gaps]
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest Tam o' Shanter, [found]
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter-- [one]
(Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses
For honest men and bonnie lasses).

O Tam! hadst thou but been sae wise
As ta'en thy ain wife Kate's advice!
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum, [told, good-for-nothing]
A bletherin', blusterin', drunken blellum; [chattering, babbler]
That frae November till October,
Ae market-day thou was na sober; [One]
That ilka melder wi' the miller [every meal-grinding]
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller; [money]
That every naig was ca'd a shoe on, [nag]
The smith and thee gat roarin' fou on;
That at the Lord's house, even on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday.
She prophesied that, late or soon,
Thou would be found deep drown'd in Doon;
Or catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk [wizards, dark]
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet [makes, weep]
To think how many counsels sweet,
How mony lengthen'd sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises!

But to our tale: Ae market night,
Tam had got planted unco right, [uncommonly]
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely, [fireside, blazing]
Wi' rea