LINES WRITTEN NEAR KILMARNOCK HOUSE
by John Ramsay, Kilmarnock 1842.
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Yon aged beech, all crimsoned with the ray
Of weary light that forms the winter day,
Calls to remembrance, with a pleasing pain,
The days I never shall behold again;
And joys that seem by memory displayed,
To veil the present with a denser shade.
While Nature stands in a dejected state,
And Evening shuts on Sol the western gate,
I'll pause alone! and sadly drop the tear
O'er what is now, and what has once been here.

Within that ancient but neglected place,
When life was sweet, there dwelt another race;
But all they felt and acted there is past,
And gone to Time's accumulating waste -
No trace is left, no vestige can be found,
Nor of themselves, nor household gods around.
'Tis but in Fancy's shadowy dream appears
The watch-dog, terror of my younger years;
The hoary hind, that travelled daily all
These mansions round, at duty's various call;
The well-remembered cattle, that would wait,
And low, impatient for the opening gate;
The roofless houses, where I climbed in quest
Of the small treasures of the songster's nest;
The garden, sleeping in the morning dew,
With it's rich fruits, and flowers of every hue;
And charms, which vainly words attempt to trace,
That hung in storm and sunshine round the place;
All that once awed or made my young heart gay,
Change has removed, and Time has swept away.

From: Ramsay's Poems - H.Crawford & Son, Kilmarnock -1842


John Ramsay was born in Kilmarnock in 1802 (6 years after Burn's death).
Following a basic education he moved to Dundonald, and returned to Kilmarnock as an apprentice carpet weaver. He began to write poetry and soon had work published in the Edinburgh Literary Journal. He left carpet weaving and became a grocer in Kilmarnock.
In 1836 he published his first subscription edition of his poems (1000 copies). In 1839 a second edition appeared, followed by 3rd, 4th and 5th editions by 1842.


This poem and information was kindly contributed by local historian Ian H. MacDonald.