408 BURNS-SIMPLE PATHOS OF HIS SONGS, "As in the bosom o' the stream The moon-beam dwells at dewy e'en; So trembling, pure, was infant love Within the breast o' bonie Jean!" - vol. iv. p. 80. Sometimes, again, it is plaintive and mournful - in the same strain of unaffected simplicity. "O stay, sweet warbling wood-lark, stay, Thy soothing fond complaining. "Again, again that tender part, "Say, was thy little mate unkind, "Thou tells o' never-ending care; Or my poor heart is broken!" - vol. iv. p. 226, 227. We add the following from Mr. Cromek's new volume; as the original form of the very popular song given at p. 325. of Dr. Currie's 4th volume : "Ye flowery banks o' bonie Doon, "Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird That sings upon the bough; "Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird "Aft hae I rov'd by bonie Doon, AND REDUNDANT IMAGERY. "Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose Frae aff its thorny tree, And my fause luver staw the rose, 409 But left the thorn wi' me." - vol. v. p. 17, 18. Sometimes the rich imagery of the poet's fancy over shadows and almost overcomes the leading sentiment. "The merry ploughboy cheers his team, "The wanton coot the water skims, "The sheep-herd steeks his faulding slap, "And when the lark, 'tween light and dark, vol. iii. p. 284, 285. The sensibility which is thus associated with simple imagery and gentle melancholy, is to us the most winning and attractive. But Burns has also expressed it when it is merely the intrument of torture of keen remorse, and tender and agonizing regret. There are some strong traits of the former feeling, in the poems entitled the Lament, Despondency, &c.; when, looking back to the times "When love's luxurious pulse beat high," he bewails the consequences of his own irregularities. There is something cumbrous and inflated, however, in the diction of these pieces. We are infinitely more moved with his Elegy upon Highland Mary. Of this first love of the poet, we are indebted to Mr. Cromek for a brief, but very striking account, from the pen of the poet himself. In a note on an early song inscribed to this mistress, he had recorded in a manuscript book "My Highland lassie was a warm-hearted, charming young creature as ever blessed a man with generous love. After a pretty long : 1 410 BURNS HIS HIGHLAND MARY. tract of the most ardent reciprocal attachment, we met, by appointment, on the second Sunday of May, in a sequestered spot by the Banks of Ayr, where we spent the day in taking a farewel, before she should embark for the West Highlands, to arrange matters among her friends for our projected change of life. At the close of Autumn following, she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock: where she had scarce landed when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days! - before I could even hear of her illness." - vol. v. p. 237, 238. Mr. Cromek has added, in a note, the following interesting particulars; though without specifying the authority upon which he details them: "This adieu was performed with all those simple and striking ceremonials which rustic sentiment has devised to prolong tender emotions and to inspire awe. The lovers stood on each side of a small purling brook; they laved their hands in its limpid stream, and, holding a Bible between them, pronounced their vows to be faithful to each other. They parted-never to meet again! "The anniversary of Mary Campbell's death (for that was her name) awakening in the sensitive mind of Burns the most lively emotion, he retired from his family, then residing on the farm of Ellisland, and wandered, solitary, on the banks of the Nith, and about the farm yard, in the extremest agitation of mind, nearly the whole of the night: His agitation was so great, that he threw himself on the side of a corn stack, and there conceived his sublime and tender elegy-his address To Mary in Heaven." - vol. v. p. 238. The poem itself is as follows: "Thou lingering star, with less'ning ray, "O Mary! dear departed shade! "That sacred hour can I forget, Can I forget the hallowed grove, "Eternity will not efface Those records dear of transports past; Ah! little thought we 'twas our last! "Ayr gurgling kiss'd his pebbled shore, TAM O'SHANTER - T ANTER - THE VISION. 411 "The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, "Still o'er these scenes my mem'ry wakes, "My Mary, dear departed shade! Where is thy place of blissful rest ? Vol. i. p. 125, 126. Of his pieces of humour, the tale of Tam o' Shanter is probably the best: though there are traits of infinite merit in Scotch Drink, the Holy Fair, the Hallow E'en, and several of the songs; in all of which, it is very remarkable, that he rises occasionally into a strain of beautiful description or lofty sentiment, far above the pitch of his original conception. The poems of observation on life and characters, are the Twa Dogs and the various Epistles - all of which show very extraordinary sagacity and powers of expression. They are written, however, in so broad a dialect, that we dare not venture to quote any part of them. The only pieces that can be classed under the head of pure fiction, are the Two Bridges of Ayr, and the Vision. In the last, there are some vigorous and striking lines. We select the passage in which the Muse describes the early propensities of her favourite, rather as being more generally intelligible, than as superior to the rest of the poem. "I saw thee seek the sounding shore, Or when the North his fleecy store Drove through the sky, There is another fragment, called also a Vision, which belongs to a higher order of poetry. If Burns had never written any thing else, the power of description, and the vigour of the whole composition, would have entitled him to the remembrance of posterity. "The winds were laid, the air was still, "The stream adown its hazelly path, "The cauld blue north was streaming forth Like fortune's favours, tint as win! "Had I a statue been o' stane, His darin' look had daunted me; |