ABSTRACT
Robert Burns, we are informed, is a ploughman, but blessed by Nature with a powerful genius. His subjects are not, as might have been expected, confined to the objects which surrounded him; he is satirical as well as pastoral, and humorous as well as pathetic. These poems being ‘chiefly in the Scottish dialect’, it must necessarily confine their beauties to a small circle of readers; however, the author has given good specimens of his skill in English. The following stanza is not only very elegant, but highly poetical. O happy love! where love like this is found! O heart-felt raptures! bliss beyond compare! I’ve paced much this weary, mortal round, 88And sage experience bids me this declare— ‘If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, ‘One cordial in this melancholly Vale, ‘ ’Tis when a youthful, loving modest Pair, ‘In other’s arms, breathe out the tender tale, ‘Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the ev’ning gale’.
