V. On Wee Johnny. Hic Jacet Wee Johnny

[Wee Johnny was John Wilson, printer of the Kilmarnock edition of Burns’s Poems: he doubted the success of the speculation, and the poet punished him in these lines, which he printed unaware of their meaning.]

Whoe’er thou art, O reader, know,
That death has murder’d Johnny!
An’ here his body lies fu’ low—
For saul he ne’er had ony.