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The Poetical Works of Thomas Pringle

With A Sketch of his Life, by Leitch Ritchie
Pringle, Thomas (1789-1834)

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AFRICAN SKETCHES.
  
TO SIR WALTER SCOTT.
  
THE BECHUANA BOY.
  
AFAR IN THE DESERT.
  
SONG OF THE WILD BUSHMAN.
  
THE CORANNA.
  
THE KOSA.
  
EVENING RAMBLES.
  
THE LION HUNT.
  
THE LION AND GIRAFFE.
  
THE EMIGRANT'S CABIN.
  
AN EMIGRANT'S SONG.
  
MAKANNA'S GATHERING.
  
THE INCANTATION.
  
THE CAFFER COMMANDO.
  
A NOON-DAY DREAM.
  
THE BROWN HUNTER'S SONG.
  
THE EXILE'S LAMENT.
  
THE CAPTIVE OF CAMALÚ.
  
THE DESOLATE VALLEY.
  
THE GHONA WIDOW'S LULLABY.
  
THE ROCK OF RECONCILEMENT.
  
THE FORESTER OF THE NEUTRAL GROUND.
  
THE SLAVE DEALER.
  
THE TORNADO.
  
PARAPHRASE OF THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM.
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SONNETS.
  
I. THE HOTTENTOT.
  
II. THE CAFFER.
  
III. THE BUSHMAN.
  
IV. SLAVERY.
  
V. FRANSCHEHOEK.
  
VI. GENADENDAL.
  
VII. ENON.
  
VIII. THE GOOD MISSIONARY.
  
IX. TO THE REV. DR. PHILIP.
  
X. A COMMON CHARACTER.
  
XI. THE NAMELESS STREAM.
  
XII. MY COUNTRY.
  
XIII. THE CAPE OF STORMS.
  
XIV. TO OPPRESSION.
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INTRODUCTORY STANZAS.
  
THE EMIGRANTS.
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EPHEMERIDES.
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PART I. JUVENILE POEMS.
  
THE AUTUMNAL EXCURSION.
  
STREAMS, WHOSE LONELY WATERS GLIDE.
  
A GRACEFUL FORM, A GENTLE MIEN.
  
THE LEGEND OF THE ROSE.
  
THE WREATH.
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FRAGMENTS OF A DREAM OF FAIRY-LAND.
 I. 
FYTTE I.
 II. 
FYTTE II.
 III. 
FYTTE III.
 IV. 
FYTTE IV.
 V. 
FYTTE V.
 VI. 
FYTTE VI.
  
LINES, WRITTEN ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF AN EARLY FRIEND.
  
A PARTING DIRGE.
  
ELEGIAC STANZAS.
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PART II. SONGS AND SONNETS.
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SONGS.
 I. 
I. LOVE AND SOLITUDE.
 II. 
II. MAID OF MY HEART, A LONG FAREWELL.
 III. 
III. I'LL BID MY HEART BE STILL.
 IV. 
IV. O THE EWE-BUGHTING'S BONNY.
 V. 
V. MARY OF GLEN-FYNE.
 VI. 
VI. COME AWA, COME AWA!
 VII. 
VII. THE HIGHLANDS!
 VIII. 
VIII. THE DARK-HAIRED MAID.
 IX. 
IX. OH! NOT WHEN HOPES ARE BRIGHTEST.
 X. 
X. PLEASANT TEVIOTDALE.
 XI. 
XI. DEAREST LOVE! BELIEVE ME.
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SONNETS.
 I. 
I. TO AN EARLY FRIEND.
 II. 
II. TO THE RIVER EARN.
 III. 
III. OF LOVE AND LOVE'S DELIGHT.
 IV. 
IV. LONG YEARS OF SORROW.
 V. 
V. THE EMBLEM.
 VI. 
VI. TO LORD LYNEDOCH, On his return to Spain, March 1813.
 VII. 
VII. TO A FEMALE RELATIVE.
 VIII. 
VIII. TO AFFLICTION.
 IX. 
IX. ON PARTING WITH A FRIEND GOING ABROAD.
 X. 
X. TO THE POET CAMPBELL.
 XI. 
XI. POETS ARE NATURE'S PRIESTS.
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PART III. MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.
  
THE SPAEWIFE.
  
LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM.
  
A POET'S FAVOURITE.
  
ON A VIEW OF SPOLETO.
  
VERSES, ON THE RESTORATION OF DESPOTISM IN SPAIN, IN 1823.
  
THE REFUGEES.
  
SPANIARDS, YIELD NOT TO DESPAIR.
  
OUR NEIGHBOUR.
  
MEMENTO.
  
THE VALLEY OF HUMAN LIFE.
  
LINES TO THE MEMORY OF THE REV. DR. WAUGH.
  
A HYMN.
  
INSCRIPTION, FOR A TOMB-STONE IN THE BURIAL-GROUND AT DRYBURGH ABBEY.

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69

X. A COMMON CHARACTER.

Not altogether wicked—but so weak,
That greater villains made of him their tool;
Not void of talent—yet so much a fool
As honour by dishonest means to seek:
Proud to the humble, to the haughty meek;
In flattery servile, insolent in rule:
Keen for his own—for others' interest cool;
Hate in his heart, and smiles upon his cheek.
This man, with abject meanness joined to pride,
Was yet a pleasant fellow in his day;
For all unseemly traits he well could hide,
Whene'er he mingled with the great and gay.
—But he is buried now—and, when he died,
No one seemed sorry that he was away!
Cape Town, 1825.
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