1.1.06

No Noise of Late Spawn'd Tittyries


University Diaries kindly gives those wearied by Robert Burns the closing lines of Robert Herrick's A New Year's Gift:

Call not to mind those fled Decembers;
But think on these, that are t'appear,
As daughters to the instant year;
Sit crown'd with rose-buds, and carouse,
Till LIBER PATER twirls the house
About your ears, and lay upon
The year, your cares, that's fled and gone:
And let the russet swains the plough
And harrow hang up resting now;
And to the bag-pipe all address,
Till sleep takes place of weariness…

I would only add the opening lines:

No news of navies burnt at seas;
No noise of late spawn'd tittyries;
No closet plot or open vent,
That frights men with a Parliament:
No new device or late-found trick,
To read by th' stars the kingdom's sick;
No gin to catch the State, or wring
The free-born nostril of the King,
We send to you...

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