Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

surdity: thou butcher, embruing thy hands in the bowels of orthography: thou arch-heretic in pronunciation : thou pitch-pipe of affected emphasis: thou carpenter, mortising the aukward joints of jarring sentences: thou squeaking dissonance of cadence: thou pimp of gender : thou Lyon Herald to silly etymology: thou antipode of grammar: thou executioner of construction: thou brood of the speech-distracting builders of the Tower of Babel : thou lingual confusion worse confounded: thou scapegallows from the land of syntax: thou scavenger of

mood and tense: thou murderous accoucheur of infant learning: thou ignis fatuus, misleading the steps of benighted ignorance: thou pickle-herring in the puppetshow of nonsense: thou faithful recorder of barbarous idiom thou persecutor of syllabication: thou baleful meteor, foretelling and facilitating the rapid approach of Nox and Erebus." The Poet might have exclaimed during this fit of scolding “O for breath to utter !”

:

VERSES

TO JOHN RANKINE.

AE day, as Death, that grusome carl,
Was driving to the tither warl'
A mixtie-maxtie motley squad,
And mony a guilt-bespotted lad ;
Black gowns of each denomination,
And thieves of every rank and station,
From him that wears the star and garter,
To him that wintles in a halter:
Asham'd himsel' to see the wretches,
He mutters, glowrin' at the bitches,

66

By G-d I'll not be seen behint them,

Nor 'mang the sp'ritual core present them,
Without, at least, ae honest man,

To

grace this d-d infernal clan." By Adamhill a glance he threw,

"L-d God!" quoth he, "I have it now,
There's just the man I want, i'faith!"
And quickly stoppit Rankine's breath.

The person to whom these lines refer was the "rough, rude, ready-witted Rankine" of Adamhill, and it is said they were suggested to Burns by the odd sarcastic dream

about his being refused admission to the infernal regions because he was one of Lord K-'s damned brutes! Cromek imagines, plausibly enough, that the first thought of the poem was suggested by Falstaff's account of his ragged recruits,—

"I'll not pass through Coventry with them, that's flat!"

This poem and some others of the same stamp have induced critics to say that the wit of Burns consisted in coarse railing, calling names, and profane swearing. There is, no doubt, much that is objectionable in his language but the conception of his invective is generally original; death in the lines before us refuses to march his scoundrel victims into the other world

:

"Without, at least, ae honest man

To grace this d-d infernal clan."

And in the epigram on Grose, the devil is so astonished at the antiquarian's weight and rotundity, that he resolves to want him rather than strain himself with such a frightful load.

ΤΟ

MY DEAR AND MUCH HONOURED FRIEND,

MRS. DUNLOP,

OF DUNLOP.

ON SENSIBILITY.

SENSIBILITY how charming,

Thou, my friend, canst truly tell: But distress with horrors arming,

Thou hast also known too well!

Fairest flower, behold the lily,
Blooming in the sunny ray:
Let the blast sweep o'er the valley,
See it prostrate on the clay.

Hear the wood-lark charm the forest,
Telling o'er his little joys:

Hapless bird! a prey the surest,

To each pirate of the skies.

Dearly bought, the hidden treasure,

Finer feelings can bestow;

Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure,
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

The Poet one day received a letter from Mrs. Dunlop, of which some of the sentiments charmed him so much that he immediately wrote these verses on Sensibility, and sent them addressed as they now appear.

It was about this time that Burns became acquainted with the poetry of Cowper: he loved The Task so much that he carried a copy of it usually in his pocket :— "Now that I talk of authors," he says to Mrs. Dunlop, "how do you like Cowper; is not The Task a glorious poem? The religion of The Task, bating a few scraps of Calvinistic divinity, is the religion of God and Nature: the religion that exalts, that ennobles man."

« PredošláPokračovať »