To Captn. Gordon, on being asked why I was not to be of the party with him and his brother Kenmure at Syme’s—-

DOST ask, dear Captain, why from Syme
I have no invitation,
When well he knows he has with him
My first friends in the nation?

Is it because I love to toast,
And round the bottle hurl?
No! there conjecture wild is lost,
For Syme by God 's no churl!

Is 't lest with bawdy jests I bore,
As oft the matter of fact is?
No! Syme the theory can't abhor------
Who loves so well the practice.

Is it a fear I should avow
Some heresy seditious?
No! Syme (but this is entre nous)
Is quite an old Tiresias.--------

In vain Conjecture thus would flit
Thro' mental clime and season:
In short, dear Captain, Syme 's a Wit--------
Who asks of Wits a reason?---

Yet must I still the sort deplore
That to my griefs adds one more,
In balking me the social hour
With you and noble Kenmure.------