Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-06-27
BURNS.
EFFIE WHYTE.

Two Dards. 1t came in with William
Wallace and Robert Bruce and went out
Win Robert Burns and Walter Scott.
Inc first two made the history, the
last Two told the story and sung the
song. The new spirit, the democratic
spirit OF modern poetry, says Taine first
showed Itself In the peasant poet Burns"
| Wnat Other poet appeals 80 to the minds of
the high and low alike, is so universally
read and loved by the learned and the
unlearned, the rich and the Door.
| The heart OF the meanast Scottish peasant
Will warm at the very mention of his
name, as did the Englishman of the
same class at the name, of Samuel John
son. Other men may be fully as great,
yet they do not inspire such feeling in
the hearts OF their cOuntrymen. Their
personality has left no such impression
OD the minds OF the common people.
To know Burns by his poetry alone.
and know nothing as his life and char
acter, is not to know Burns. In some
poets the one is independent of the
other; their worth Of poets can be fully
appreciated by being familiar merely
with their works. In fact, to know the
lives and characters of few, would
mar the beauty and true value of their
poetry. But in Burns, it is different.
His life is SO wrapped up in his song,
thOt the two are in separ able.
He painted what he saw; he described
what he felt In the humblest object he
saw a strange peculiar likeness
to himself. He upturned the daisy with
MS plough, but unlike other men, saw
IN that simple mountain flower, some
thing aside from its beauty, something
aside from the mere fact that it was
crushed beneath his plOughshare, never
TO bloom again. He saw in it the
fate of simple bard,
On llfe's rough ocean luckless starred
Unsklllful be he to note the card
Of prudent lore,
Till pillows rage and gales blow
hard,
And Whelm him Oe'r."
He sympathized with the luckless
flower, for was his end to be much differ
ent?
"Ey'n'thOu who mOurned the daisy's fate,
That tate Is thine. no distant date,
Stern Ruins ploughs hare drives elate
Full on thy bloom;
Till crushed beneath the burrows weight
Shall be they DOOM
The daisy and he lived side by side,
not as naughty powerful man and a
humble weak flower set in Gods garden
to be spnrned and trOdden under foot,
they had something in common.
Burns loved nature in all it's forms.
"Admiring nature in her widest grace.
These northern scenes with weary feet
| trace:
Ger many winding dale and painful
The abodes Of coveyd grouse and timid
My savage journeys curious, Ipursue,
Till fam'd Bread albane opens to my
view,
Here Poesy might wake her heaven
taught Tyre,
Any look thro Nature with creative
fire."
He loved his fellow men, of ten those
unworthy to beloved with love as fer
vent as his. He even threw himself into
the arms of such as these and entreated
them to love him. He loved those little
animals which he encountered in his
daily walks in the field; and his heart
burned with Indignation at the man who
would Wilfully wound or kill one of
these helpless creatures.
"Inhuman man, curse on thy barb 'eOus
art,
And blasted be thy murder-aiming eye,
May never pity sOOthe thee with sigh,
Nor ever pleasure glad thy cruel hearth
And in all this the man was sincere
every line that he wrote proceeded from
the very core Of his heart.
Burns has sung to us as no other poet
has ever done. His songs are full of
love, of JOY, of humOr and of pathOs, of
patriotism, of musicl "Mary in Heav-
en-" "Auld Lang Syn6," "Banks and
braes O'Bonnie DoOn," John Anderson my
10, John," Comm thro' the Rye These
songs which are sung the world over at
every fireside where the English tongue
is spoken and which the world will never
let die! That one great war ode in partic-
ular, "Bruce,s address to his army at
BannOckburn-Can it be excelled?
Robert the Bruce was Burns favOrite
hero, and when he composed that thund-
sring address while riding horseback
OV0I Uicdk UdlIOWdy uOUI, Ou d StOIIHy
night, he certainly infused into it all
the furious ardor and heroic spirit that
he could conceive to exist in the heart of
the hero king. Such sense of patriot
ism as is shown in these lines is unpaI-
alleled Above all, Burns loved his
native land. When mere boy he
expressed the wish, that he
''for poor anld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book could make
Or sing sang at least"
and when he completed his life's work,
it could not be said Of him that he had
left the glories Of Scotland unsungl The
destructive thistle was dear to him, for
was it not the national emblem Of Scot
land?
"The rough burr thistle spreading wide,
Among the bearded bear,
7 turned my wedding clipsaside
And spared the symbol dear"
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