The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-25

to you with greater force than the<daisy.
l dare say:
of a. the arts the wind can blaw,
L dearly lo'e the west,
For there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lass that 1 lo'e best;
There's wild woods grow, and rivers row,
Wi mony hill between;
But day an NIGHT my fancy's FIGHT
Is ever wi my Jean"
Does not this quotation bring back to
your minds 1.-The sighs and vows amang
the knowes?" Some of you, your
thoughts far away, among "auld Scot
lands howes and Scotland's knowes,"
and taking no account of the points OF
the compass, may be praying:
"Blaw saft, ye wastin' wins. blaw saft,
, Amang the leafy trees;
WI gentle gale frae hill and dale.
Bring hame the laden bees;
And bring the lassie back to me,
That's aye sac neat an clean.
Ae blink o. her wad Danish care,
Sac charming is my JEAN"
This last stanza is not Burns, how
ever.
1t is an illustration of the truth OF my
theory as to the prevalence of the poetic
feeling that there is so much in Burns
and eIsewhere-of the poetry of love; the
love of woman being so universally I'M
planted in the heart of man-and con-
:yersely-all that treats OF the passion
meets with universal sympathy. We are
all poets when were courting; most OF
us, hope, after we're married.
Much of the pleasure of life is made
up of what may be comprehensively CALL
, ed fun. Not to many of us is 1t given to
be witty, and perhaps he is the better off
who, unlike Falstaff. is neither witty IN
himself, nor the cause of wit in others
but we all have some sense of humor-
some traces of sense of it, surely. Even
gentle dulness ever loves a joke"
Where shall we find the means of cul-
tivating that side of the poetic faculty
in such profusion as in the works of
Burns, who was both witty and humor-
Gus? There is so much fun in him that
it is not easy to make a selection.
Being rudely called out one evening
from a party of friends at the Kings
Arms, Dumfries, to see a vain coXcomb
of an English commercial traveller, who.
having a bottle of wine on his table
thought he might patroniZe the Ayrshire
plouShman, Burns got talking to him
and soon took his measure, and before
leaving the room he was asked to give
a sample of impromptu verse. Robbie
asked the strangers name and age, and
Immediately produced the following:
I'm se'enteen huner' n forty-nine
The Dell got stuff to make swine,
And cast it in @ corner;
But willy he changed his plan,
An shaped it something like man,
An cad it Andrew Turner
That is caustic witt
Travelling in the Highlands of Scot
land. he left the following in a house
where he had been kindly entertained:
when Deaths dark stream ferry o.er,
"a time that surely shall Gomez
In Heav'n itself I'll ask no more
Than Just a Highland welcome"
That is kindly witt
l see from the program that we are to
have a sample of Burns humor by and
by. / should like to interpolate just the
last verse of what I think his happiest
effort in that line-"An Address to the
De'n.' You remember how, after ex-
pressing astonishment at the malicious
wickedness. of the Devil and reciting at
great length what the human race has
suffered at has hands, Burns takes leave
of the subject in the following sympa
tfetic and somewhat prophetic words:
But fare We weel, auld Nickie ben,
Gin We wad tax a thocht an men.
Ye aihlins m:cht-I dinna ken,
Still hae stake.
I've wac tae think upo' yon den.
Fen for ye'er sake
There is another direction in which
Burns influence is great. to which /
should like to direct your attention. His
writings are essentially national IN their
setting and patriotic in their tendency.
He fosters in US that love of country
which is inherent in the hearts of all
men, and especially so in Scotchmen-
Nay, he was the first Scottish writer OF
note, after the union Of the two king
doms whose writings are really nation
al. He was. is and always VIII be. the
National Bard; but his patriotic creed is
no narrow one: he sympathizes with the
struggle for liberty everywhere. OF
France he sings:
Heard We o. the tree O. France?
1 watna what's the name O. {;
Around it a the patriots dance
Weel Europe kens the fame o. t:
IL stands where ance the Basteele stood,
A prison built by kings, man,
Where superstition's hellish brood
Kept France in leading strings. man
OF America. in his "Ode for Washing
tons Birthday
NO Spartan tube, no Attic shell,
No Tyre Aeolian, 1 awake,