The men cast out in party matches, [quarrel]
Then sowther a' in deep debauches: [solder]
Ae night they're mad wi' drink and whoring, [One]
Neist day their life is past enduring. [Next]
The ladies arm-in-arm, in clusters,
As great and gracious a' as sisters;
But hear their absent thoughts o' ither,
They're a' run de'ils and jades thegither. [downright]
Whyles, owre the wee bit cup and platie,
They sip the scandal-potion pretty;
Or lee-lang nights, wi' crabbit leuks, [live-long, crabbed looks]
Pore owre the devil's picture beuks; [playing-cards]
Stake on a chance a farmer's stack-yard,
And cheat like ony unhang'd blackguard.
There's some exception, man and woman;
But this is gentry's life in common.
By this the sun was out o' sight,
And darker gloamin' brought the night; [twilight]
The bum-clock humm'd wi' lazy drone, [cockchafer]
The kye stood rowtin' i' the loan; [cattle, lowing, lane]
When up they gat and shook their lugs, [ears]
Rejoiced they werena men but dogs;
And each took aff his several way,
Resolved to meet some ither day.
The satirical tendency becomes more evident in _The Holy Fair_.
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