St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-02-10
Robert Burns.


admitted to the temple of immortal
whose names and deeds will
mark and render illustrious the age in
they lived but there have
been none who will continue to be re-
membered with more affection, whcr-
the tender influences OF his muse
shall reach, than Robert Burns, the
humble AYRSHIRE ploughman. Since
birth Napoleon and Wellington,
the great military heroes OF the power
of France and England have appeared,
materials for volumes of
pregnant history, and passed away.
Since his birth, a mighty nation has
been born and grown up to gigantic
manhood in the new world +; Wash
ington's fame has eliminated, and
L" the Cincinnatus of the Wcst,' the
first, the last, the best, stands peerless
in his glory among the sons OF men !;
his compccrs have risen and departed,
leaving behind them an enduring fame,
but Burns continues to shine as a star
Of the first magnitude in his elevated,
his own peculiar sphere, and his fame
grows brighter and clearer and more
Respondent as time sweeps away the
mists which gathered around his earth
iy life. Since his birth "star-cyed
science" has filled the world with the
wonders of her disclosures, mental
power has acquired a ten-fold force,
and the sweep of thought has been
extended over a far reaching range,
vet Burns continues to fill the mind
and satisfy the requirements of the
intellect. lie is "cver charming, ever
new"
How do we account for this bright
and increasing glory Of the Scottish
bard, who, in the modcsty of his ma
turc, supposed he might leave behind
him a name sufficient to cntitle him
to a line in the pages of the Aberdeen
Almanac? 1t is because he was a
poet of the heart more than of the
head. He embodied in his verse the
emotions and sympathics of universal
humanity. He touched chords to
which every bosom beats responsive.
He dcfcd oppression and bigotry. He
condemned mcanncss and hypocrisy.
His heart was large enough to en-
brace the suffering poor wherever
they might be, and yet was so bound
to his native land and hearth, that he
poured out strains of the most burn
ing and devoted patriotism. He, poor
and oppressed, his muse bursting out
into glorious freedom under whatever
circumstances of life he might be
placed, has left a legacy Of richest
wealth to all who come after him,
which but increases in value as it
flows adown the stream of time.
Go back DER the pathway of one
hundred periods, and we rest upon the
birthday of Robert Burns. Where
Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pcbbled
shore, and by the banks o bonnie
Doon he spent boyllood's days. From
the wild rosc and the mountain daisy
from the artless chants of the Lave.
rock and the Lintic-from all the
| scanty remnant of the wreck of Eden,
his soul was in his earliest days at
tuned for the themes of his future
songs.
Burns prominently cXcellcd in his
songs of the affections. Whose heart
is there that has ever known true de-
| yotion which has not been warmed I'M
der the inspiration Of his beautiful
song to "Mary in Heaven" His
Highland Mary" Bonnie DOOM
and "Maid o the bonnie blue Gen.
are of this class, in the latter OF
which he beautifully describes the
power of his c]nchantress over him
when he says:
s'she talk d, she smil'd, my heart she ply'd,
She charm'd my soul, | wst na how
And ay the stound, the deadly wound,
Cam frac her cen sac bonnie blue.
But spare to speak and spare TO speed
Shed aiJhns listen to my vow
ShouI! she refuse, I'll lay my dead
To her iva zen sac bonnie blue
The struggle Of Burns personal life
was a severe one. Poverty, wounded
pride, rcmorsc, all pursued him. ii,
was indeed of that class mentioned
by Shelly, who
Learn in suffering what they teach in song
But this lowly born poet has writ
ten himself a name more enduring
than marble, and we would rather bt
the author of Bonnie Doom" Oh
Highland Mary" than to be Presi
dent of the United States.
Give lettrred Iomp TO teeth Of Time,
So q Bonnie Doom - but tarry
Bio out the Epics stately rhyme
But spare his : Highland Mary"
At the Burns celebration in Boston
Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke Of tn,
Poet as follows:
?, Not Iatimer, not Luther, struck more tcllin!
= blows against False Theology than did thi
l brave singer. The Confession of Angus
, burg" the Declaration Of Independence
the French :. Rights of Man" and the g Mar
/, s%eillaisc, a" are not more weighty documents il
, the history Of freedom than the songs of Burns
His satire has lost none of its edge. His must
4 cal arrows yet sing through the air.
The people who care nothing for literatur
and poetry. care for Burns. 1t was indifferen
4 they thought who saw h~im-whethcr h
wrote verses or not he could have done any
thing else us well. Yet how true a poet is he
And the poet, too, of poor men, of grey hod
den, and the guernsey coat, and the blouse
He has given voice to all the experiences {
common life he has endeared the farm-hous
- 49, -klA. ,al ,,rort, 1n,.. NJ,