Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/358

 348 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

ROBERT BURNS.

A VISION OF HIS MAUSOLEUM AT DUMFRIES.

What marble dome salutes mine eyes, Tipped with the pallid glow of eve ? They tell me here a poet lies,

Whose fate untimely bids me grieve. Yet let me first thy history know,

Or ere I deign to mourn for thee ; Speak, shade of him that lies below ! For many kinds of bards there be ; Some, bravely free, have trod the earth like kings. While some have cringed and crawled like grovelling things.

Didst thou with mercenary rhymes

Pander to power or to thine age ? Or, silent at the oppressor's crimes.

Wast thou puffed up by patronage .'' Did wrong win thine applause, forsooth ?

Did merit rouse thy pride or spleen ? Wouldst thou have gagged the mouth of truth

With caustic wit or satire keen ? Then I'll not waste my time to read thy name ; Oblivion were for thee more fit than fame.

��The more melodious were thy song.

The less to hear should I have heart ; To the grand sum of human wrong

Thou hast contributed thy part. To wear the bays thou wast unfit ;

Thy brows had soiled the wreath divine ; At no pure shrine thy torch was lit ;

Sleep on ! Thou hast no tears of mine.

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