For "descrive", v ... the OED2(3) gives a range of possiblities.

OED assigns Burns to 2. -- describe;   but I'd go for 4. -- descry.

Either meaning could fit the sense of the passage.

OED -- defs. of "descrive":

Obs. exc. Sc.

[a. OF. descriv-re (13th c.), later descrire, full stem descriv- (mod.F. décrire, décriv-) = Pr. descriure, Cat. descriuer, It. descrivere:—L. In the course of the 16th c. gradually superseded (exc. in Sc.) by the latinized form describe.

   Descrive was in ME. reduced to descrie (descry v.2), and thus confused in form, and sometimes in sense with descry v.1 Hence descrive also occurs as a form of the latter.]

   1. To write down, inscribe; to write out, transcribe.

   b. To write down in a register, enrol; cf. Vulg. Luke ii. 1 ut describeretur universus orbis.

   2. = describe v. 2.

including: - 1785 Burns To W. Simpson xvi, Let me fair Nature's face descrive.

3. a. To represent pictorially or by delineation; also absol. b. To draw geometrically (figures, etc.). c. To trace out or pass over (a definite course). Cf. describe v. 3–6.

   d. To map out, set forth the boundaries of.
   (But also often including the general sense 2.)

¶4. = descry v.1 [Cf. etymol. note above.]

Robin