Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm.

65

Nae man can tether time or tide:

The hour approaches Tam maun ride,

The swats1 sae ream'd 2 in Tammie's noddle,
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.3 110
But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd,
Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,
She ventur'd forward on the light;

That hour, o' night's black arch the key- And, wow! Tam saw an unco1 sight!
stane,

That dreary hour he mounts his beast in; 70
And sic a night he taks the road in,
As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in.

The wind blew as 't wad blawn its last;
The rattling show'rs rose on the blast;
The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd;
Loud, deep, and lang the thunder bellow'd
That night, a child might understand,
The Deil had business on his hand.

Weel mounted on his grey mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,

Tam skelpit on thro' dub 2 and mire,
Despising wind and rain and fire;

115

I 20

Warlocks and witches in a dance;
Nae cotillon brent-new 5 frae France,
But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels
Put life and mettle in their heels:
A winnock bunker 7 in the east,
There sat Auld Nick in shape o' beast;
A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,
To gie them music was his charge;
He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl,10
Till roof and rafters a' did dirl."
Coffins stood round like open presses,
That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses;
And by some devilish cantraip 12 sleight
Each in its cauld hand held a light,

80

By which heroic Tam was able

To note upon the haly table

Whiles holding fast his guid blue bonnet,

9

14

A murderer's banes in gibbet airns; 13
Twa span-lang, wee, unchristen'd bairns;
A thief, new-cutted frae the rape
Wi' his last gasp his gab 15 did gape;
Five tomahawks, wi' blude red-rusted;
Five scymitars, wi' murder crusted;
A garter, which a babe had strangled;
A knife, a father's throat had mangled,
Whom his ain son o' life bereft -
The grey hairs yet stack to the heft;
Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu',
Which ev'n to name wad be unlawfu'.

125

130

135

140

95

100

Before him Doon pours all his floods;
The doubling storm roars thro' the woods;
The lightnings flash from pole to pole,
Near and more near the thunders roll;
When, glimmering thro' the groaning trees,
Kirk-Alloway seemed in a bleeze :
Thro' ilka bore 15 the beams were glancing,
And loud resounded mirth and dancing.

Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!

14

105

1 clattered 2 puddle 3 goblins owls 5 smothered

6 birches 7 big drunken 9 neck-bone

They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they

gorse blaze every

10 15

19

" pile of stones crevice

9 steamed

20

12

tricksy

13 irons

14

rope

17 old woman 18 sweated

cast aside

21

22

23

clothes work che