Wildly here without control
Nature reigns and rules the whole;
In that sober, pensive mood
Dearest to the feeling soul,

She plants the forest and the flood:
Life's poor day I'll musing rave,
And find at night a sheltering cave,

Where waters flow, and wild woods wave,
By bonie Castle Gordon.

PART FOUR: LOVE SONGS

PART FOUR

LOVE SONGS

There are no other love songs so exquisitely sweet as those of Burns. He wrote his love songs to music. His wife or some of his friends sang the old Scotch melodies over and over to him till his soul responded to their rhythmic charm, and then in the gloaming or in the moonlight he walked by the riverside, or sat under a favorite tree in the depth of the woods or in later years in the ruins of Lincluden Abbey to compose them. He refused to accept any money from the publishers of his songs-poor though he was. They form his sacred gift to humanity.

Many people regard Burns as a faithless lover. He had in reality not many loves for a man of his temperament. He was fond of Nellie Kirkpatrick, when he was 15, and of Peggy Thompson, when he was 17. The boy and girl love of these years is natural and profoundly developing of some of the best elements in character. He deeply loved Alison Begbie when 22 and 23 but she refused to marry him. He met Jean Armour when 25. He gave her a private marriage document perfectly legal in Scotland in his time. Her father made her burn it. His heart then

turned to Mary Campbell (Highland Mary). No one can doubt the depth and sincerity of his love for her. They were engaged to be married, but Mary died three months after. Three years after her death he lay out all night in the stackyard and wrote, "To Mary in Heaven." In the height of his glory in Edinburgh he met and deeply loved Clarinda (Mrs. McElhose). They would undoubtedly have been married, but her husband who had left her was still alive. He was fond of Margaret (Peggy) Chalmers. He wrote many poems to Chloris (Jean Lorimer) after he was married, but in a copy of his poems which he presented to her, he wrote that they were "Fictitious reveries." She sang sweetly and he composed his songs to Chloris to her music, but she was just a friend to the family; to Mrs. Burns as well as to the Poet.

When Burns became celebrated Jean Armour's father gave consent to her marriage to Burns, and she made him an excellent wife.

Burns loved Nature as few men ever did, and he glorified his love songs by using the sweetest and truest emotions stirred in his soul by Nature to interpret the emotions of the heart. The rapturous music of the bird songs, the beauty of the sky, the flowers, the trees, the hills, the valleys-these are the elements he used to typify and reveal human love.