Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1865-02-04


loving his productions, and their eyes filling
with tears at the sad story of his life
Whence comes il Z that in nearly every Amer
lean home you viii find a volume of Burns
Ii is because his verse is music to the ears
and hearts OF all.
His was a muse that spoke not alone to his
countrymen. and though the banks of Doom
can claim his nativity, Man. the world DER.
claims. and will Calm him for all time, as
the PoEr or THE HUMAN HEART.
Born in indig cnce, shut out to great ex-
tent from the storeheuses of knowledge, his
youthful mind wm fed and nouri.hed by
communion with Nature. With a poetic
temperament. his thoughts and feelings flow
cd forth in verse as natural as the song of the
thrush. Everything around and about him
was seen with the eve of the poet and his
impressions clothed in the ideal hues of i'm
agination- No mawkish sentiment. no sim
ulated agonies. no affected despair, to be
found in his writings, but in every line,
whether mirthful or sad. tender or satiricel.
loving or hating. you recognize earnestness
and truth-that nan was uttering what he
thought and felt. and yet with all the sim
plicity of unaffected nature.
Burns is truly the poet Of the people all
his sympaihies are with the lowly. Their
joys and their griefs-their rights and their
wrOngs-in word. PEASANTS life, is ever
the burden of his muse.
What love of country burned in his soul !?
In view of leaving his native land, he burst
out in that wall which has brought tears to
the eyes of many Scot;
"The gloomy night is gathering fast"
What native OF the Gland of brown heath
and shaggy wood" has not felt his blood
surge at " Scots saaa Aas"9 Carlyle says it
should be sung with the "throat of the whirl-
wind" His ambition was to do something
for his country. and in his songs he has left
her the richest legacy ever bequsa,hed by any
of her children.
think it is Fletcher who says, "Lst me
make the songs of country, and you may
make its laws" If he meant that song be-
came the higher law of the heart. then, surely
is Burns lawgiyer. for wherever the hopes,
the joys and loves of man seek expression in
ssng. in BUsNs are they sung. The rythm of
his songs is melody itself, and harmon ICES
with the tunes. as the winds which sigh thre'
the bsughs and kiss the leaves in summers
night.
What variety. what passionate tenderness
in "Ae fond kiss :? e" What daring hardihood
in "Macpherson's Farewell 2" What indie
pendence in "Naebody 2" What humor in
Duncan Gray 2" What satire in She's
fair and fause =" What confding affection
in 'John Anderson, my Jo2" What fond
memories in "Auld Lang Syne 2"
Love and tenderness to woman filled ahe
heart of the poet from the time the boy-bard
gave vent to his feelings to NELL" to the
time when the icy hand OF death held his
warm heart. In that last scene. to the gentle
girl who attended him in his dying hours he
could compose those words that have made
the name of JESSIE LEwARs immortal;
Thos at sweet the smile when fond lovers meet,
AID soft "a their parting tear, JESSIE.
His poetry gave direction to the mind of
hrs country which is felt at this day. He
proved to the world what genius slumbered
among the people. The working men of IA is
land may hold up their heads and tell the
proudest. that in a nation not barren of great
names. the greatest among them all is the
ploughman of Ayr.
For every mood, thought, and sentiment of
the heart of mar, you will find al echo in the
writings Of Burns. When gloom shrouGs his
mind in view of the trials of life. he will real
izc that "Man was made to mourn" When
mirth gladdens his heart and fun sparkles in
his ZEE, Tam O'ShaDters ride" will move
him to quicker glee. When the devotional
hour wraps his soul. he will think of "The
Cotter's Saturday Night" When scorn of
hypocrisy curls his lip, he viii repeat Holy
Willie's Prayer" When the tide of patriot
ism surgcs through his veins. "Sco;s wha hae'
will quicken the flow of his blood. When
melancholy droops over his heart as the forms
Of lost o. es fit before him, ITO Mary in
Heaven" will sweeten the pensive hour. When
wealth struts before hin, he can silence its
pref ensions with
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The mans the gowd for a. that"
aud when humanity, wide as the brotherhood
of man, is the aspiration Of his soul, be will
recollect that it was the ploughman-b
who longed for the time
''That man to man the world DER.
Should brithers be and a. that"
By the force of genius the ploughman was
admitted to the society of the noble and great
and Natures nobleman lowered among them,
the Peer amoug peers. The idea. of the rus.
tic struck with surprise the learned of the
land, and Swans had to acknowledge that he
had grasped as it were by intuition, the
truths which only studious life had permit
ted them to acquire
What love of nature and of man is breathed
in his poems The man daily soiled with
tho labors of the farm, had heart which
yearned with tenderness to the "cowr'in tim
rous beastie," and when the winter Of priva.
ton threw its chill around his family hearth,
he even in that hour could think in winters
storm of the "ourie cattle and the silly sheep"
Viewed as wonder when his genius first
broke upon his countrymen, with the expira-
ton of the nine days. he was left by the