The Gavelyte, April 1908

.""i(i THE f;AVBLYTE. i'tic. He who aeknowledged few become proverbs in all lan(hi, such mi: masters owned Burns ·a" his superior, 1 "Oh, wad some pow'r the giftie gie ns where he speaks of him- Tae see oorsels as ithers see us; ''Whose light, I hailed when first it I It wad frae many a blunder free us ~hone, an' foolish notiJn." And who showed my youth, It is said to know his human That verse may . build a princely ' emotions the following poems illus- throne trate them, for comic humor, "Dun- In humble truth ." 1 can Gray cam' him tae woo" for He was a poor man's son looking '1 friendship, "Should Auld acquaint– on society high and low, on nature , ance be forgot? and for personal in all its varied aspects with the j independence, A. man's a man for a' clearrst eye - expreRsing what he I that." · saw and felt in ·the language of his Where is a better description of firesid~, with a directness, a force, I pleasure tbar,- and a vitality rr.aking his poems i But ple~sure's like the poppy spread, classical. He interpreted the lives, t Yo•J s1eze the flower the blossom thoughts, feelings, and manners of the i sped, Sc~ttish peasantry. as they never can I Or like the snowfl~lrn in the river, be interpreted agmn. One moment white then melts for- Hia Cott.ers' Saturday Night, as I ever. Lockhart sayi:,, no other poem of his J "Whe,:ever men of English lilood does such justice to his better naturE> I would give vent to the deepest; ·t I B ld th' J kindest and most genial feelings, it 1 s 1ows urns cou reverence e 1 ·s to th f B th t • • • 1 1 e songs 0 urns . ey- urn, nat10nal ~1ety whether he practised , and find in tht'.m a fresh tie to brother- it or not. . . I hood. It is .this w?ich forms Burns' Burns sympathized with the I most enduring claims on the world's peasant's wantP, their trials and joys, I gratitude." nnd in their own languagP mnne them i F't _ _ t_l_ l__ l_d_h_._ t d 1 . . • 1 z recen y ec ure 1s s u en s musical by genrns. on the evils of copying, which led to In Burns' time there were other the following discussion: poets but none who chose for their J Blair- "Well, he didn't mean the b " subject the Scottish life. Scotland's oys_. , · h. . I Miss Allen- 'Well, he didn't mean romantic 1story might have been I tl · 1 th t' " . . ie gir s, a s sure. forgotten, if it h~d not. been for I Linton- ."Then, he must have meant RnrnR. 8ome of h1:;; snyings lrnv" the oln mmns."