This
famous one:
________________________________________________
To A
Louse, On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church
By Robert
Burns
Ha! whaur
ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your
impudence protects you sairly;
I canna
say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre
gauze and lace;
Tho',
faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a
place.
Ye ugly,
creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested,
shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur
ye set your fit upon her-
Sae fine
a lady?
Gae
somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some
poor body.
Swith! in
some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye
may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither
kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals
and nations;
Whaur
horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your
thick plantations.
Now haud
you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the
fatt'rels, snug and tight;
Na, faith
ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till
ye've got on it-
The verra
tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss'
bonnet.
My sooth!
right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump
an' grey as ony groset:
O for
some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell,
red smeddum,
I'd gie
you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress
your droddum.
I wad na
been surpris'd to spy
You on an
auld wife's flainen toy;
Or
aiblins some bit dubbie boy,
On's
wyliecoat;
But Miss'
fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur
ye do't?
O Jeany,
dinna toss your head,
An' set
your beauties a' abread!
Ye little
ken what cursed speed
The
blastie's makin:
Thae
winks an' finger-ends, I dread,
Are
notice takin.
O wad
some Power the giftie gie us
To see
oursels as ithers see us!
It wad
frae mony a blunder free us,
An'
foolish notion:
What airs
in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n
devotion!
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