dead's a herrin':
Niest time we meet, I'll wad a groat, [Next, wager]
He gets his fairin'!'

But, just as he began to tell,
The auld kirk-hammer strak the bell [struck]
Some wee short hour ayont the twal, [beyond, twelve]
Which rais'd us baith: [got us to our feet]
I took the way that pleas'd mysel,
And sae did Death.

A few miscellaneous poems remain to be quoted. These do not naturally
fall into any of the major glasses of Burns's work, yet are too
important either for their intrinsic worth or the light they throw on
his character and genius to be omitted. The Elegies, of which he wrote
many, following, as has been seen, the tradition founded by Sempill of
Beltrees, may be exemplified by _Tam Samson's Elegy_ and that on
Captain Matthew Henderson. Special phases of Scottish patriotism are
expressed in _Scotch Drink_, and the address _To a Haggis_; while more
personal is _A Bard's Epitaph_. In this last we have Burns's summing
up of his own character, and it closes with his recommendation of the
virtue he strove after but could never attain.

TAM SAMSON'S ELEGY

Has auld Kilmarnock seen the deil?
Or great Mackinlay thrawn his heel? [twisted]
Or Robertson again grown weel,
To preach an' read?
'Na, waur than a'!' cries ilka chiel, [worse, everybody]
'Tam Samson's dead!'

Kilmarnock lang may grunt an' grane, [groan]
An' sigh, an' sab, an' greet her lane, [weep alone]
An' cleed her bairns, man, wife, an' wean, [clothe, child]
In mourning weed;
To death, she's dearly paid the kane,-- [rent in kind]
Tam Samson's dead!

The Brethren o' the mystic level
May hing their head in woefu' bevel, [slope]
While by their nose the tears will revel,
Like ony bead;
Death's gien the Lodge an unco devel,-- [stunning blow]
Tam Samson's dead!

When Winter muffles up his cloak,
And binds the mire like a rock;
When to the loughs the curler's flock [ponds]
Wi' gleesome speed,
Wha will th