The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-07-20
TOMORROW, ONE HUNDRED YEARS.

land. lie had lived only thirty-seven
years but as he was born with the
genius OF song In him and as about all
the thoughts no had he was in the habit
of running into verse, he left behind
him an extraordinarily large and wonder
fully various collection OF poetry that
comprises a number of the most exquisite
productions of English language and
songs that are sung the world over.
BURNS was pre-eminently lyric poet.
He made songs from his own emotions
and be made most OF them when the par
ticuiar emotion that was to be ex-
pressed was in full activity. IL he fell
In love with pretty face--and he seems
to have done this quite as readily and
frequently as most men he sang a 7ong
about II. III be was in trouble he wrote
heart-wringing verse;. II he had been
out the night before he celebrated the
jolliication IN verse-not always waiting
for the morn, but letting his muse ex-
press herself on the window shutter, the
table, scrap OF old paper or any
where elso that was handy. A field
mouse upthrown by his plow or
stray flower inspired his sympathetic
pen--although creatures with life in them
rather than plants and flowers and trees
appealed most to him, and human Great
ures more than all. He joined with his
friends in their grief and he rojoiced in
their good fortune-and both he did in
verse. For lot OF the pretty ais OF his
country he wrote new and better words.
His life was full of bitter experiences
and he put them into verse. lie had his
joyous hours and he wrote apout them.
He bad dreams. air castles, fears, hopes,
remorse, and all these were put into
verse. And because he was a human be-
ing like millions upon millions OF human
beings then, now and TO come, some
thing OF what he wrote Is shared by
everybody. And high and low, rich and
poor, find mirrored in the poetry Of BOBBY
body loves BURNS and the verses he
made.
Rarely he departed from the almost
literal expression of his emotions TO
take what the critic would call a loftier
fight and give us pretentious things like
"Tam o. Shanter," and "Ihe Coltar's Sut-
urday Night" that are as fine and as
well perfected as his most pungent and
most rea1 ally quotable bit. That he had
a capacity for what II srary men distin-
guish by calling 1t ''sustained effort" Is
plain enough, but he had little of time or
energy for sustaining. lie was poor. He
was plougnman OF Ayr, and an excise
man OF psmfrias There WAS drudgery
enough in either occupation, and 1t was
time-hlling drudgory even II it did not
clod The poet mind.
But we, the people, whose right and
privilege IL Is to inherit the riches OF
genius, have no cause to complain of our
heritage from BOBBY BURNS. "Auld
Lang synep "a probably familiar TO more
persons and is oiiener sung than any
national or religious hymn ever written.
At least the sentiment, of It is aud few
of It's lines. For perhaps the average
man who is moved TO join in the singing
OF this or any other familiar song makes
no pretonce TO close familiarity with the
text. "Scots Hha Eae" is the Marseiilaise
o. scotland, aud is not so we'll known
out Of Scotland, but "a Mans a Man
for a. That has deservecly been called
the Marseilialso OF Humanity. Aud in
varying degree no poet who eve- lived
has TO his credit list OF quotations so
familiar to so many persons as BURNS
always excepting the Bard OF Ayon.
The anniversary OF the death Of the be-
loved poet will he commemorated by
Scotchmon nil over the world tomorrow,
and men OF other natiopalities will join
in the obseryances. In Scotland al en-.
deavor is being made TO erect a memorial
at Nauchline, the heart of tho BURNS
country where more than one hundred OF
his poems were written and whore there
is neither statue nor monument. The
plan contomplatcs the building of cottage
homes Tor the poor set up about a memo
rial tower in which viii be stored BURNS
relies. This plan, it is said, is progressing
favorably and tho centenary obsorvances
are expected TO give it an impetus.
"Highland Mary Is not forgotten