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Article BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EMINENT (DECEAS... ← Page 4 of 14 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Biographical Sketches Of Eminent (Deceas...
ms face for himself the struggle of life . Then came the death of his father ' s generous master ; the farm Avas not productive ; and he fell into the hands of a hard , relentless , factor , who ultimately provided Burns Avith the withering character of that race Which he drew in his
tale of " The Twa Dogs . " In order to meet the demands upon them , the family lived very badly , and , unaided , they took upon themseh ^ es the entire work of the farm ; yet , as Burns writes , the grasping agent made " ' his indignation continue to boil , years afterwards , at the recollection of the scoundrel factor ' s insolent threatening letters , which used to set the whole family in tears . "
We now come to an important epoch of the poet ' s life . In his fifteenth autumn he was coupled with a young girl , in the labours of the harvest , as his partner ; he calls her " abonnie , sweet , sonsie lass , " a year younger than himself , and on her account he first committed the sin of rhyme . The passage is so well worth reading in his own words that we shall literally transcribe them ; it runs thus : —
"She , altogether unwittingly to herself , initiated me in that delicious passion which , in spite of acid disappointment , gin-horse prudence , and book-worm philosophy , I hold to be the first of human joys—our dearest blessing here below ! How she caught the contagion , I cannot tell : you medical people talk much of infection from breathing the same air , the touch , & c . ; but I never expressly said I loved her . Indeed , I did not knoAv
myself why I liked so much to loiter behind Avith her , when returning in the evening from our labours ; why the tones of her A oice made my heartstrings thrill like an iEolian harp , and particularly why my pulse beat such a furious ratan Avhen I looked and fingered OA er her little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and thistles . Among her other loA r e inspiring qualities , she sang SAveetly : and it was her favourite reel to Avhich I attempted giving
an embodied vehicle in rhyme . I Avas not so presumptuous as to imagine could make verses like printed ones , composed by men Avho had Greek and Latin ; but my girl sang a song which Avas said to be composed by a small country laird ' s son on one of his father ' s maids with Avhom he Avas in love , and I saw no reason why I might not rhyme as Avell as he : for excepting that he could smear sheep and cast peats , his father living in the moorlands , he had no more scholar craft than myself . "
So , with the song in praise of " Nell "u , once I lo ' ed a boimie lass , " the future bard of Scotland first made Ioajc and poetry . Soon after his father ' s lease having expired , the family removed to a larger farm at Tarbolton , and in that place the poet ' s little story Avas the most eventful . He says he Avas , perhaps , the most ungainly
boy in the parish—no solitaire Avas less acquainted with the ways of the world . But in this homo he gathered much from such works as they possessed , written by Shakspeare , Pope , Locke , Bayle , Allan Ramsay , Hervey ' s Meditations , and a select collection of English songs , the latter being his constant companion , over which he pored when driving his cart , or walking to and from his labour ; and each verse , line by line , was analysed carefully ; having stored his memory with those passages that were tender or sublime , and passing over
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Biographical Sketches Of Eminent (Deceas...
ms face for himself the struggle of life . Then came the death of his father ' s generous master ; the farm Avas not productive ; and he fell into the hands of a hard , relentless , factor , who ultimately provided Burns Avith the withering character of that race Which he drew in his
tale of " The Twa Dogs . " In order to meet the demands upon them , the family lived very badly , and , unaided , they took upon themseh ^ es the entire work of the farm ; yet , as Burns writes , the grasping agent made " ' his indignation continue to boil , years afterwards , at the recollection of the scoundrel factor ' s insolent threatening letters , which used to set the whole family in tears . "
We now come to an important epoch of the poet ' s life . In his fifteenth autumn he was coupled with a young girl , in the labours of the harvest , as his partner ; he calls her " abonnie , sweet , sonsie lass , " a year younger than himself , and on her account he first committed the sin of rhyme . The passage is so well worth reading in his own words that we shall literally transcribe them ; it runs thus : —
"She , altogether unwittingly to herself , initiated me in that delicious passion which , in spite of acid disappointment , gin-horse prudence , and book-worm philosophy , I hold to be the first of human joys—our dearest blessing here below ! How she caught the contagion , I cannot tell : you medical people talk much of infection from breathing the same air , the touch , & c . ; but I never expressly said I loved her . Indeed , I did not knoAv
myself why I liked so much to loiter behind Avith her , when returning in the evening from our labours ; why the tones of her A oice made my heartstrings thrill like an iEolian harp , and particularly why my pulse beat such a furious ratan Avhen I looked and fingered OA er her little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and thistles . Among her other loA r e inspiring qualities , she sang SAveetly : and it was her favourite reel to Avhich I attempted giving
an embodied vehicle in rhyme . I Avas not so presumptuous as to imagine could make verses like printed ones , composed by men Avho had Greek and Latin ; but my girl sang a song which Avas said to be composed by a small country laird ' s son on one of his father ' s maids with Avhom he Avas in love , and I saw no reason why I might not rhyme as Avell as he : for excepting that he could smear sheep and cast peats , his father living in the moorlands , he had no more scholar craft than myself . "
So , with the song in praise of " Nell "u , once I lo ' ed a boimie lass , " the future bard of Scotland first made Ioajc and poetry . Soon after his father ' s lease having expired , the family removed to a larger farm at Tarbolton , and in that place the poet ' s little story Avas the most eventful . He says he Avas , perhaps , the most ungainly
boy in the parish—no solitaire Avas less acquainted with the ways of the world . But in this homo he gathered much from such works as they possessed , written by Shakspeare , Pope , Locke , Bayle , Allan Ramsay , Hervey ' s Meditations , and a select collection of English songs , the latter being his constant companion , over which he pored when driving his cart , or walking to and from his labour ; and each verse , line by line , was analysed carefully ; having stored his memory with those passages that were tender or sublime , and passing over