The Best Laid Schemes

Robert Crawford is professor of modern Scottish literature at the University of St. Andrews. His many books include "The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography" (Princeton). Christopher MacLachlan is senior lecturer in English at St. Andrews and the editor of "Before Burns: Eighteenth-Century Scottish Poetry".

Acknowledgements ix Textual Note xi Introduction xiii Further Reading xxxvii POEMS My Father was a Farmer 3 To Ruin. 5 The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie, The Author's Only Pet Yowe, An Unco Mournfu' Tale 6 Poor Mailie's Elegy. 9 Mary Morison 11 On a Noisy Polemic. 12 For the Author's Father. 12 A Fragment. [When Guilford Good our Pilot Stood] 13 Address to the Unco Guid, or the Rigidly Righteous. 16 O Leave Novels 19 Green Grow the Rashes. A Fragment. 20 Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet. 21 Holy Willie's Prayer 26 Death and Doctor Hornbook. A True Story. 30 Epistle to J. L[aprai]k, An Old Scotch Bard. 36 The Vision. 40 To a Mouse 47 The Holy Fair. 49 The Twa Dogs, A Tale. 57 The Cotter's Saturday Night. 65 Address to the Deil. 71 Brose and Butter. 75 To a Louse 76 A Cantata. [Love and Liberty or The Jolly Beggars] 78 On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies. 89 To the Author. [Second Epistle to Davie] 91 [Lines Written on a Bank of Scotland One Guinea Note] 93 [Address of Beelzebub] 94 A Dream. 97 The Brigs of Ayr. A Poem. 102 The Northern Lass. 110 Address to Edinburgh. 111 To a Haggis. 113 A Fragment. [There was a Lad] 115 [Inscribed around Fergusson's Portrait] 116 [Lines on Fergusson] 116 Written by Somebody on the Window of an Inn at Stirling on Seeing the Royal Palace in Ruins. 117 Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes [First Version] 118 I Love My Jean. 120 O, Were I on Parnassus Hill 121 Tam Glen. 122 Auld Lang Syne. 124 Louis What Reck I by Thee. 125 Robin Shure in Hairst. 126 Nine Inch Will Please a Lady. 127 Afton Water. 128 [Epistle to Dr Blacklock] 129 On Captn. Grose's present peregrinations through Scotland collecting the antiquities of that kingdom 131 My Love She's but a Lassie Yet. 133 My Heart's in the Highlands. 134 John Anderson my Jo. 135 Tam o' Shanter. A Tale. 136 The Banks o' Doon. 143 Ae Fond Kiss. 144 Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation. 145 The De'il's Awa wi' th' Exciseman. 146 Highland Mary 147 The Rights of Woman 148 Why Should Na Poor People Mow 150 Whistle & I'll Come to You My Lad. 151 Ode [for General Washington's Birthday] 152 Bruce to his Troops on the Eve of the Battle of Bannock-burn. 154 Act Sederunt o' the Court o' Session. 155 A Red Red Rose. 156 Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes [Second Version] 157 For a' that & a' that. 158 The Dumfries Volunteers. 160 The Heron Ballads I 162 To the Tooth-Ach. 164 [Oh Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast] 166 The Solemn League and Covenant 167 The Selkirk Grace. 167 Tam Lin. 168 Comin thro' the Rye. 174 Charlie He's my Darling. 175 The Trogger. 176 The Tree of Liberty. 177 REDISCOVERED POEMS The Rediscovered Poems in this Book 183 Logie o' Buchan 187 I Courted a Lassie 188 My Steps Fate on a Mad Conjuncture Thrust 189 Here is to the king, Sir 191 Tho' Life's Gay Scenes Delight No More 192 PROSE Five Extracts from Burns's First Commonplace Book, 1783-85 195 Preface [To Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1786] 198 Dedication [To Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787] 200 Extract from Burns's Journal of his Border Tour 201 Letter to Dr John Moore, 2 August 1787 202 Letter to Agnes McLehose, 19 January 1788 213 Letter to Agnes McLehose, 25 January 1788 215 Letter to Robert Ainslie, 3 March 1788 216 Extract from a Letter to Burns from Agnes McLehose 217 Letter to Dr John Moore, 4 January 1789 219 Extract from a Letter to Mrs Frances Dunlop of Dunlop, 12 January 1795 221 Letter to James Armour, 10 July 1796 222 Notes 223 Index of Titles 265 Index of First Lines of Poems 269