1 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 comparatively rude and naked, the most beautiful scenery will always be found in the vallies, 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 diminishes; but from this cause, as well as from the mildness of the temperature, the attraction of the season increases, and the summer-night becomes still more beautiful. The greater obliquity of the sun's path on the ecliptic, prolongs the grateful season of twilight, to the mid-night 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.* Το * 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 To all these adventitious circumstances, on which so much of the effect of poetry depends, great attention is paid by Burns. There is scarce ly Collins, speaking of the natural objects that may be employed to give interest to the descriptions of passion, she observes, " they present an inexhaustible variety, "from the song of Solomon, breathing of Cassia, rr 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 pastoral 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 division of the Island, which equal, or perhaps surpass 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, ly a single song of his, in which particular scenery is not described, or allusions made to natural objects, remarkable for beauty or interest; and though his descriptions are not so full as are sometimes met with in the older Scottish songs, they are in the highest degree appropriate and interesting. Instances in proof of this might be quoted from the Lea-Rig,* Highland Mary, the Soldier's Return, Logan Water§; from that beautiful pastoral Bonnie Jean, and a great number of others. Occasionally the force of his genius carries him beyond the usual boundaries of Scottish song, and the natural objects introduced, have more 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, in In one song, the scene of which is laid in a winter-night, the "wan moon" is described as "setting behind the white waves;"* in another the "storms" are apostrophized, and commanded to "rest in the cave of their slumbers." 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 Libertie, a Vision, and in his two war-songs, Bruce to his Troops, and the Song of Death.|| These last are of a description of which we have no other in our language. The martial songs of our 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 * Vol. IV. p. 45. ‡ Vol. IV. p. 346. † Ibid. p. 50. § Ibid. p. 125. See p. 218 of this Volume. Many of her rivers and mountains, 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 favorite 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 during the stillness and solemnity of the moon-light night.* There is no species of poetry, the productions of the drama not excepted, so much calculated 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 * See vol. IV. p. 160. p. 346. |