no servants to accompany him, to partake of his
fare, or to receive his instructions. The circle
which he joins, is composed of his wife and
children only ; and if it admits of less variety,
it affords an opportunity for representing scenes
that more strongly interest the affections. The
younger children running to meet him, and
clambering round his knee; the elder, return-
ing from their weekly labours with the neigh-
bouring farmers, dutifully depositing their little
gains with their parents, and receiving their fa-
ther's blessing and instructions; the incidents
of the courtship of Jenny, their eldest daughter,
<f woman grown ;" are circumstances of the most
interesting kind, which are most happily deli-
neated : and after their frugal supper, the repre-
sentation of these humble cottagers forming a
wider circle round their hearth, and uniting in
the worship of God, is a picture the most deeply
affecting of any which the rural muse has ever
presented
312 THE LIFE OF
presented to the view. Burns was admirably
adapted to this delineation. Like all men of ge-
nius he was of the temperament of devotion, and
the powers of memory co-operated in this in-
stance with the sensibility of his heart, and the
fervour of his imagination.* The Cotter's Sa-
turday Night , is tender and moral, it is solemn
and deyotional, and rises at length into a strain
of grandeur and sublimity, which modern poetry
has not surpassed. The noble sentiments of
patriotism with which it concludes, correspond
with the rest of the poem. In no age or coun-
try have the pastoral muses breathed such ele-
vated accents, if the Messiah of Pope be ex-
cepted, which is indeed a pastoral in form only.
It is to be regretted that Burns did not employ
his genius on other subjects of the same nature,
which the manners and customs of the Scottish
peasantry would have amply supplied. Such
poetry is not to be estimated by the degree of
pleasure which it bestows ; it sinks deeply into
the heart, and is calculated, far beyond any other
human means, for giving permanence to the
scenes and the characters it so exquisitely de-
scribes, f
Before
* The reader will recollect that the Cotter was
Burns's father. -See p. 83.
f See Appendix, No. II. Note D.
ROBERT BURNS. 313
Before we conclude, it will be proper to offer
a few observations on the lyric productions of
Burns. His compositions of this kind are chiefly
songs, generally in the Scottish dialect, and al-
ways after the model of the Scottish songs, on
the general character and moral influence of
which, some observations have already been of-
fered.* We may hazard a few more particular
remarks.
Of the historic or heroic ballads of Scotland,
it is unnecessary to speak. Burns has no where
imitated them, a circumstance to be regretted,
since in this species of composition, from its ad-
mitting the more terrible as well as the softer
graces of poetry, he was eminently qualified to
have excelled. The Scottish songs which served
as a model to Burns, are almost without ex-
ception pastoral, or rather rural. Such of them
as are comic frequently treat of a rustic court-
ship, or a country wedding j or they describe
the differences of opinion which arise in married
life. Burns has imitated this species, and sur-
passed his models. The song beginning, " Hus-
band, husband, cease your strife,"! ma y be cited
in support of this observation. J His other comic
songs
* Seep. 15, 16, 17- + See vol. iv. p. 145.
% The dialogues between husbands and their wives,
which
314 THE LIFE OF
songs are of equal merit. In the rural songs of
Scotland, whether humorous or tender, the sen-
timents are given to particular characters, and
very generally, the incidents are referred to par-
ticular scenery. This last circumstance may be
considered as the distinguishing feature of the
Scottish songs, and on it a considerable part of
their attraction depends. On all occasions the
sentiments, of whatever nature, are delivered in
the character of the person principally interest-
ed. If love be described, it is not as it is ob-
served, but as it is felt ; and the passion is de-
lineated under a particular aspect. Neither is it
the fiercer impulses of desire that are expressed,
as in the celebrated ode of Sappho, the model of
so many modern songs ; but those gentler emo-
tions of tenderness and affection, which do not
entirely absorb the lover; but permit him to as-
sociate his emotions with the charms of external
nature, and breathe the accents of purity and
innocence, as well as of love. In these respects
the love-songs of Scotland are honourably distin-
guished
which form the subjects of the Scottish songs, are al-
most all ludicrous and satirical, and in these contests the
lady is generally victorious. From the collections of Mr.
Pinkerton we f*ud that the comic muse of Scotland de-
lighted in such representations from very early times,
in her rude dramatic efforts, as well as in her rustic
songs.
ROBERT BURNS. 315
guisbed from the most admired classical com-
positions of the same kind ; and by such asso-
ciations, a variety, as well as liveliness, is given
to the representation of this passion, which are
not to be found in the poetry of Greece or
Rome, or perhaps of any other nation. Many of
the love-songs of Scotland describe scenes of ru-
ral courtship 3 many may be considered as invo-
cations from lovers to their mistresses. On such
occasions a degree of interest and reality is given
to the sentiments, by the spot destined to these
happy interviews being particularized. The lovers
perhaps meet at the Bush aboon Traquair, or on
the Banks of Ettrick j the nymphs are invoked
to wander among the wilds of Roslin, or the
woods of Invermay. Nor is the spot merely
pointed outj the scenery is often described as
well as the characters, so as to present a com-
plete picture to the fancy.* Thus the maxim of
Horace, ut pictura poesis, is faithfully observed
by
* One or two examples may illustrate this observa-
tion. A Scottish song, written about a hundred years ago,
begins thus:
" On Ettrick banks, on a summer's night
At gloaming, when the sheep drove hame,
I met my lassie, braw and tight,
Come wading barefoot a' her lane :
My
316 THE LIFE OF
by these rustic bards, who are guided by the
same impulse of nature and sensibility which in-
fluenced the father of epic poetry, on whose ex-
ample the precept of the Roman poet was per-
haps founded. By this means the imagination is
employed to interest the feelings. When we do
not
My heart grew light, I ran, I flang
My arms about her lily-neck,
And kiss'd and clasped there fu' lang,
My words they were na moiiy feck."*
The lover, who is a Highlander, goes on to relate the
language he employed with his Lowland maid to win her
heart, and to persuade her to fly with him to the High-
land hills, there to share his fortune. The sentiments
are in themselves beautiful. But we feel them with
double force, while we conceive that they were addressed
by a lover to his mistress, whom he met all alone, on a
summer's evening, by the banks of a beautiful stream,
which some of us have actually seen, and which all of us
can paint to our imagination. Let us take another ex-
ample. It is now a nymph that speaks. Hear how she
expresses herself
" How blythe each morn was I to see
My swain come o'er the hill !
He skipt the burn, and flew to me,
I met him with guid will."
Here
* Monyfeck, not very many.
ROBERT BURNS. 317
not conceive distinctly, we do not sympathize
deeply in any human affection -, and we conceive
nothing in the abstract. Abstraction, so useful
in morals, and so essential in science, must be
abandoned when the heart is to be subdued by
the powers of poetry or of eloquence. The
bards of a ruder condition of society paint in-
dividual objects ; and hence among other causes,
the easy access they obtain to the heart. Ge-
neralization is the vice of poets whose learning
overpowers their genius ; of poets of a refined
and scientific age.
The dramatic style which prevails so much
in the Scottish songs, while it contributes
greatly
Here is another picture drawn by the pencil of Nature.
We see a shepherdess standing by the side of a brook,
watching her lover as he descends the opposite hill. He
bounds lightly along ; he approaches nearer and nearer ;
he leaps the brook, and flies into her arms. In the re-
collection of these circumstances, the surrounding scenery
becomes endeared to the fair mourner, and she bursts into
the following exclamation :
" O the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom,
The broom of the Cowden-Knowes !
I wish I were with my dear swain,
With his pipe and my ewes."
Thus the individual spot of this happy interview is
pointed out, and the picture is completed.
318 THE LIFE OF ,
greatly to the interest they excite, also shews
that they have originated among a people in the
earlier stages of society. Where this form of
composition appears in songs of a modern date,
it indicates that they have been written after the
ancient model.*
The Scottish songs are of very unequal poe-
tical merit, and this inequality often extends to
the different parts of the same song. Those
that are humorous, or characteristic of manners,
have in general the merit of copying nature ;
those
* That the dramatic form of writing characterizes
the productions of an early, or, what amounts to the
same thing, of a rude stage of society, may be illustrated
by a reference to the most ancient compositions that
we know of, the Hebrew scriptures, and the writings. of
Homer. The form of dialogue is adopted in the old
Scottish ballads even in narration, whenever the situa-
tions described become interesting. This sometimes pro-
duces a very striking effect, of which an instance may be
given from the ballad of Edom o Gordon, a composition
apparently of the sixteenth century. The story of the
ballad is shortly this The castle of Rhodes, in the ab-
sence of its lord, is attacked by the robber Edom o'
Gordon. The lady stands on her defence, beats off the
assailants, and wounds Gordon, who in his rage orders
the castle to be set on fire. That his orders are carried
into effect, we learn from the expostulation of the lady,
who
ROBERT BURNS. 319
those that are serious, are tender, and often
sweetly interesting, but seldom exhibit high
powers of imagination, which indeed do not
easily find a place in this species of composition.
The alliance of the words of the Scottish songs
with the music, has in some instances given to
the former a popularity, which otherwise they
would not have obtained.
The association of the words and the music
of these songs, with the more beautiful parts of
the scenery of Scotland, contributes to the same
effect.
who is represented as standing on the battlements, and
remonstrating on this barbarity. She is interrupted
" O then bespake her little son,
Sate on his nourice' knee ;
Says, ' mither dear, gi' owre this house,
' For the reek it smithers me.'
" I wad gie a' my gowd, my childe,
* " Sae wad I a' my fee,
({ For ae blast o' the westlin wind,
" To blaw the reek frae thee."
The circumstantiality of the Scottish love-songs, and
the dramatic form which prevails so generally in them,
probably arises from their being the descendants and
successors of the ancient ballads. In the beautiful mo-
dern song of Mary of Castle-Cary, the dramatic form has
a very happy effect. The same may be said of Donald
and Flora, and Come under my plaidie, by the same au-
thor, Mr. Macniel.
320 THE LIFE OF
effect. It has given them not merely popularity,
but permanence j it has imparted to the works of
man some portion of the durability of the works
of nature. If, from our imperfect experience of
the past, we may judge with any confidence re-
specting the future, songs of this description are
of all others least likely to die. In the changes
of language they may no doubt suffer change;
but the associated strain of sentiment and of
music will perhaps survive, while the clear stream
sweeps down the vale of Yarrow, or the yellow
broom waves on the Cowden-Knowes.
The first attempts of Burns in song-writing
were not very successful. His habitual inatten-
tion to the exactness of rhymes, and to the har-
mony of numbers, arising probably from the
models on which his versification was formed,
were faults likely to appear to more disadvantage
in this species of composition, than in any other;
and we may also remark, that the strength of his
imagination, and the exuberance of his sensibi-
lity, were with difficulty restrained within the
limits of gentleness, delicacy, and tenderness,
which seem to be assigned to the love-songs of
his nation. Burns was better adapted by nature
for following, in such compositions, the model of
the Grecian than of the Scottish muse. By study
and practice he however surmounted all these
obstacles. In his earlier songs, there is some
ruggedness ;
ROBERT BURNS. 321
ruggedness -, but this gradually disappears in his
successive efforts ; and some of his latter com-
positions of this kind may be compared, in po-
lished delicacy, with the finest songs in our lan-
guage, while in the eloquence of sensibility they
surpass them all.
The songs of Burns, like the models he fol-
lowed and excelled, are often dramatic, and for
the greater part amatory ; and the beauties of
rural nature are every where associated with the
passions and emotions of the mind. Disdain-
ing to copy the works of others, he has not,
like some poets of great name, admitted into his
descriptions exotic imagery. The landscapes
he has painted, and the objects with which they
are embellished, are, in every single instance,
such as are to be found in his own country. In
a mountainous region, especially when it is com-
paratively rude and naked, the most beautiful
scenery will always be found in the valleys, and
on the banks of the wooded streams. Such
scenery is peculiarly interesting at the close of
a summer-day. As we advance northwards,
the number of the days of summer, indeed, dimi-
nishes ; but from this cause, as well as from the
mildness of the temperature, the attraction of
the season increases, and the summer-night be-
comes still more beautiful. The greater obli-
quity of the sun's path on the ecliptic, prolongs
VOL, I. Y the
32<2 THE LIFE OF
the grateful season of twilight to the midnight
hours, and the shades of the evening seem to
mingle with the morning's dawn. The rural
poets of Scotland, as may be expected, associate
in their songs the expressions of passion, with
the most beautiful of their scenery, in the fairest
season of the year, and generally in those hours
of the evening when the beauties of nature are
most interesting.*
* A lady, of whose genius the editor entertains high
admiration, (Mrs. Barbauld), has fallen into an error
in this respect. In her prefatory address to the works
of Collins, speaking of the natural objects that may
be employed to give interest to the descriptions of pas-
sion, she observes, u they present an inexhaustible variety,
from the Song of Solomon, breathing of cassia, myrrh,
and cinnamon, to the Gentle Shepherd of Ramsay,
whose damsels carry their milking pails through the
frosts and snows of their less genial, but not less pas-
toral country." The damsels of Ramsay do not walk-
in the midst of frost and snow. Almost all the scenes
of the Gentle Shepherd are laid in the open air, amidst
beautiful natural objects, and at the most genial season
of the year. Ramsay introduces all his acts with a
prefatory description to assure us of this. The fault
of the climate of Britain is not, that it does not afford
us the beauties of summer, but that the season of such
beauties is comparatively short, and even uncertain.
There are days and nights, even in the northern divi-
sion of the island, which equal, or, perhaps, surpass,
what
ROBERT BURNS. 323
To all these adventitious circumstances, on
which so much of the effect of poetry depends,
great attention is paid by Burns. There is
scarcely a single song of his in which particu-
lar scenery is not described, or allusions made
to natural objects, remarkable for beauty or in-
terest 3 and though his descriptions are not so
full as are sometimes met with in the older Scot-
tish songs, they are in the highest degree appro-
priate and interesting. Instances in proof of
this might be quoted from the Lea Rig,*
Highland Mary,\ the Soldier's Return,"^ Lo-
gan Water ;^ from that beautiful pastoral, Bon-
nie Jean ,|| and a great number of others. Oc-
casionally the force of his genius carries him
"beyond the usual boundaries of Scottish song,
and the natural objects introduced have more
Y 2 of
what are to be found in the latitude of Sicily or of
Greece. Buchanan, when he wrote his exquisite Ode
to May, felt the charm as well as the transientness of these
happy days :
Salve fugacis gloria seculi,
Salve secunda digna dies nota,
Salve vetustae vita? imago,
Et specimen venientis iEvi !
* Vol.iv.p.Q. Voliv. p. 73.
f Ibid. p. 17. || Ibid. ^.79-
% Ibid. p. 51.
324 THE LIFE OF
of the character of sublimity. An instance of
this kind is noticed by Mr. Syme,* and many
others might be adduced :
" Had I a cave on some wild, distant shore,
Where the winds howl to the wave's dashing roar ;
There would I weep my woes,
There seek my lost repose,
Till grief my eyes should close,
Ne'er to wake more/'-f*
In one song, the scene of which is laid in a
winter night, the " wan moon" is described as
** setting behind the white waves;" J in an-
other, the " storms" are apostrophized, and
commanded to " rest in the cave of their slum-
bers.'^ On several occasions, the genius of
Burns loses sight entirely of his archetypes,
and rises into a strain of uniform sublimity.
Instances of this kind appear in Libertie, a Vi-
sion^ and in his two war-songs, Bruce to his
Troops,** and the Song of Death. ff These
last are of a description of which we have no
other in our language. The martial songs of our
nation
* See p. 2 10 of this volume.
t VoL'vi. p. 92. Vol. iv. p. 50.
% Ibid. p. 45. || Ibid. jp. 344.
** Vol. iv. p. 125.
ft See p. 216 of this volume.
ROBERT BURNS. 3%5
nation are not military, but naval. If we were
to seek a comparison of these songs of Burns
with others of a similar nature, we must have
recourse to the poetry of ancient Greece, or of
modern Gaul.
Burns has made an important addition to
the songs of Scotland. In his compositions,
the poetry equals and sometimes surpasses the
music. He has enlarged the poetical scenery
of his country. Many of her rivers and moun-
tains, formerly unknown to the muse, are now
consecrated by his immortal verse. The Doon,
the Lugar, the Ayr, the Nith, and the Cluden,
will in future, like the Yarrow, the Tweed, and
the Tay, be considered as classic streams, and
their borders will be trod with new and superior
emotions.
The greater part of the songs of Burns were
written after he removed into the county of
Dumfries. Influenced, perhaps, by habits
formed in early life, he usually composed while
walking in the open air. When engaged in
writing these songs, his favourite walks were
on the banks of the Nith, or of the Cluden,
particularly near the ruins of Lincluden Abbey ;
and this beautiful scenery he has very happily
described under various aspects, as it appears
during the softness and serenity of evening,
and
326 THE LIFE OF -
and during the stillness and solemnity of the
moon-light night.*
There is no species of poetry, the produc-
tions of the drama not excepted, so much cal-
culated to influence the morals, as well as the
happiness of a people, as those popular verses
which are associated with national airs, and
which being learnt in the years of infancy,
make a deep impression on the heart before the
evolution of the powers of the understanding.
The compositions of Burns, of this kind, now
presented in a collected form to the world,
make a most important addition to the popular
songs of his nation. Like all his other writings,
they exhibit independence of sentiment j they
are peculiarly calculated to increase those ties
which bind generous hearts to their native soil,
and to the domestic circle of their infancy ;
and to cherish those sensibilities which, under
due restriction, form the purest happiness of
our nature. If in his unguarded moments he
composed some songs on which this praise
cannot be bestowed, let us hope that they will
speedily be forgotten. In several instances,
where Scottish airs were allied to words objec-
tionable in point of delicacy, Burns has substi-
tuted others of a purer character. On such oc-
casions,
* See vol. iv. p. 160. p. 346.
ROBERT BURNS. 327
casions, without changing the subject, he has
changed the sentiments. A proof of this may
be seen in the air of John Anderson my Joe, which
is now united to words that breathe a strain of
conjugal tenderness, that is as highly moral as
it is exquisitely affecting.
Few circumstances could afford a more strik-
ing proof of the strength of Burns's genius, than
the general circulation of his poems in England,
notwithstanding the dialect in which the greater
part are written, and which might be supposed
to render them here uncouth or obscure. In
some instances he has used this dialect on sub-
jects of a sublime nature ; but in general he
confines it to sentiments or description of a ten-
der or humorous kind ; and, where he rises into
elevation of thought, he assumes a purer Eng-
lish style. The singular faculty he possessed of
mingling in the same poem humorous senti-
ments and descriptions, with imagery of a sub-
lime and terrific nature, enabled him to use this
variety of dialect on some occasions with strik-
ing effect. His poem of Tarn o' Shanter affords
an instance of this. There he passes from a
scene of the lowest humour, to situations of the
most awful and terrible kind. He is a musician
that runs from the lowest to the highest of his
keys j and the use of the Scottish dialect en-
ables
328 THE LIFE OF
ables him to add two additional notes to the
bottom of his scale.
Great efforts have been made by the inha-
bitants of Scotland, of the superior ranks, to ap-
proximate in their speech to the pure English
standard ; and this has made it difficult to write
in the Scottish dialect, without exciting in them
some feelings of disgust, which in England are
scarcely felt. An Englishman who understands
the meaning of the Scottish words, is not of-
fended, nay, on certain subjects, he is, perhaps,
pleased with the rustic dialect, as he may be
with the Doric Greek of Theocritus.
But a Scotchman inhabiting his own coun-
try, if a man of education, and more especially
if a literary character, has banished such words
from his writings, and has attempted to banish
them from his speech ; and being accustomed
to hear them from the vulgar daily, does not
easily admit of their use in poetry, which re-
quires a style elevated and ornamental. A dis-
like of this kind is, however accidental, not
natural. It is of the species of disgust which
we feel at seeing a female of high birth in the
dress of a rustic ; which, if she be really young
and beautiful, a little habit will enable us to
overcome. A lady who assumes such a dress
puts
ROBERT BURNS. 329
puts her beauty, indeed, to a severer trial. She
rejects she, indeed, opposes the influence of
fashion ; she, possibly, abandons the grace of
elegant and flowing drapery; but her native
charms remain, the more striking, perhaps, be-
cause the less adorned ; and to these she trusts
for fixing her empire on those affections over
which fashion has no sway. If she succeeds, a
new association arises. The dress of the beauti-
ful rustic becomes itself beautiful, and esta-
blishes a new fashion for the young and the gay.
And when, in after ages, the contemplative ob-
server shall view her picture in the gallery that
contains the portraits of the beauties of succes-
sive centuries, each in the dress of her respective
day, her drapery will not deviate, more than
that of her rivals, from the standard of his taste,
and he will give the palm to her who excels in
the lineaments of nature.
Burns wrote professedly for the peasantry of
his country, and by them their native dialect
is universally relished. To a numerous class
of the natives of Scotland of another descrip-
tion it may also be considered as attractive in