Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-25
ANNIVERSARY OF BURNS.
The Festivities and Pleasant SO.
cialIties.
scosIa's Great Lyrica, BARD.

scotia's Great LyricaI BARD.
ms Is the one hundred and twelfth an
niVersary OF the birth Of Robert Burns.
Ine great National Poet of Scotland. who
was Dorn JAN 20, 1853, and who died july
q, 1880 The day is held in high esteem,
sn9 Is celebrated with social genialities
AUG festivities by the sons of Scotia eyery
Snere throughout the land. In most of
Ine olties OF the country there are Burns
Oiuos' ana everywhere to-day there will be
sa1nenngs and reunions, and mirtb and
song and toasfs and speeches in honor of
nooeft burns, whose songs are read and
sung Wherever literature has a lover or a
lana language. No one ever took a
deeper or tirmer hold upon the hearts of
ms countrymen or of mankind than did
ne. Few are the firesides where his SCOT
ters Saturday Night" is not familiar
a clay built cottage, two miles soutb of
the town OF Ayr, and in the vicinity Of
me Kirk OF Allowsy and the 0anld brio
ODoon was, we are told, the birth nlace
OF the gifted and genial poet. His narent.
were peasants Of the poorer class and IL
was at intervals Of farm work and boldir,
the pillow that Robert learned fine EnolisSS
language. His literary career beoa1 in
poetry and in love. at the age of sixteen
wnen he endited some verses to a Gsbon,
ME sweet sonsie lass" who was eopnled
with him In the labors OF 'shay. harvest !"
Inc future poet was engaged as a dsv Ia
borer at seven pounds per year mil h.
was nineteen, when he went to the Kirk
sswald school, where he studied surveving
ms was on a smuggling coast, where
traders which it is said ENLARGED bis
knoWledge OF human nature, whatever eff
Iect II may have had upon his manners.
here ne wrote some of his earlier poems.
snch as the 'Dnrge of Winter" 'fMailie's
Elegy, ETC., which showed that he was en-
lowed with the true Promethean spark.
In 1871 he removed to Irvine to learn the
trade OF hax-dresser, In which he made lit
tie progress. Here be wrote the 'sEoistIe
to John Rankin" for which he was com
PEELED to do church penance He reveneed
himself by writing the 'sPoet's Welcome"
and The Ranting Dog, the Daddy OFT"
In 1888, he and his brother Gilbert had To
labor like Trojans on a fam at Mossigiel
to keep the heads of the family above wa
ter. 1t was during these years of intense
labor and gloom, and short time before
the death Of his father, that he wrote til.
Mountain Daisy" ''Man was Made to
Mourn" and that sweetest of pastorals.
the ''Cotters Saturday Night" besides a
number of his finest love songs. none of
which he says related to Imaginary he
roines." In 1856, six hundred copies of
his poems were issued at Kilmsrnock-
from which he derived twenty pounds
sterling. With this he intended to take
passage in ship to sail from the CLYDE tor
the West Indies. His chest was packed
and he had written 1.-THE GLOOMY Night
is Cat, ering Fast, as his farewell to Scot
land, now seen IN the standard school
books. He was induced, however. to GO
to Edinburgh, in which city he was feted.
petted and caressed as few men had ever
been. With such patronage funds began
to be received, and he retired to his home
with five hundred pounds in his pocket
from the sale OF second edition
of his poems. He now settled in Dunn
frieshire, where, In 1888, he married Jane
Armour, for whom he had formed a pre-
vious attachment He became an excise
officer on a salary of seventy pounds a
year. With this and his farm, and the
proceeds Of An occasional poem, he man
aged to exc out meagre existence, rem
dered none the more affiuent by his con-
vivial habits. The farm eventually re-
verted to the original landlord A hand
to-hAnd grape with poverty and care
was henceforth his gloomy fate. Near the
close of the year 1871, he retired to a
small house in Dumfries, where he sup
| ported his family on his official stipend,
and by irregular contributions to "John-
sons Museum and "Thompsons Collee-
tons of Scottish Airs. But his contin-
ued convivisl habits, i'll health and disap-
pointmsnt as to his prospects of promo
| ton, soon undermined his constitution,
and in his thirty-seyenth year he died.
| During his illness his good humor never
| forsook him, and his 'humble home was
| like a place beseiged." The talk and anx-
iety among mechanics and peasants, the
rich and the learned, was of and concern
ing Burns His funeral was attended by
vast multitudes from all parts of the coun-
try.
The poetry Of Burns will live forever,
because it sprung directly out of the human
heart, to the deepest and noblest emotions
of which it appeals. Though he aspired
only to the humblsst flights of poetic art,
his fancy was so profoundly fraught with
passion, so instinct with melody, so true to
nature, 80 artless IN its grace, that every
bosom capable of feeling must be touched
either by its pathos, its beauty or its mirth
''He had an inspiration for every fancy, a
music for every mood.
There have been loftieI themes than his,
And longer scrolls and louder Tyres,
And lays lit up with Poesy's
Purer and hOler fires;
Yet read the names that know not death
Few nobler ones than Burns are there,
And few have won a greener wreath
Than that which binds his hair"