Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

  masonic song
  tune—“shawn-boy,” or “over the water to charlie.”
  ye sons of old killie, assembled by willie,
  to follow the noble vocation;
  your thrifty old mother has scarce such another
  to sit in that honoured station.
  i've little to say, but only to pray,
  as praying's the ton of your fashion;
  a prayer from thee muse you well may excuse
  'tis seldom her favourite passion.
  ye powers who preside o'er the wind, and the tide,
  who marked each element's border;
  who formed this frame with beneficent aim,
  whose sovereign statute is order:—
  within this dear mansion, may wayward contention
  or withered envy ne'er enter;
  may secrecy round be the mystical bound,
  and brotherly love be the centre!