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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
when , instead o £ his f ^ ngftrfeeingaiiwu *^^ he catches himself saying -to faimeeH i' tJUat . ia a , go ^ £ \* Vject ' . But wre must not run into « l h # mU y upont ^ im ^ or ^ n ^ jneiy because we think one cla $ « of 6 ur au ^ iior ' s po ^ ms not so ? xQ # lleut as another . NQr can we take upon us to lecture a . Sf&tc ^ x ^ tt ( as we take him to be ) for his Scotch . Yet it does seem to us that some reformation is needed in the use of this northern Doric
dialect . Burns / we Relieve , created the language of hts" poems out of the chaos of all sorts of lowland provincialism , with English , for a variety , when it better suited his purpose . And he managed it with the majestic ease of a creator . In truth it had , and to the
skilful hand it has , a wondrous pliability . We are therefore less tolerant of an imperfect versification in its employment . And we think Mr . Nicoll indictable for the cacophony which often results from his elision of the last consonant in upon and ofa which he always writes upo and o \ Such lines
as—She bat in the shade O' a sweet-scented briar / or , * An' the fiends o' earth an' the fiends o air Begouth to greet an * wail /
are marvellously marred iji their melody by the curtailment , and should be cured of their twitch by an infusion of f ' s . As they stand ' they sairly crook a body ' s mouV We shall now give some specimens of these poems ; and , much as we think they will approve themselves for true poetry , of % \\ e several classes to which they belong , it is but fair to say that they have been selected rather as exhibiting the peculiar characteristics of this volume , than as the best compositions which it contains .
I . ' stanzas on the birth-day op burns . ' This is the natal day of him , Who , born in want and poverty , Burst from his fetters , and arose The freest of the free , — Arose to tell the watching earth What lowly jnen coulcj feel and do-To show that mighty heaven-like souls In cottage hamlets gre ^ r .
Burns ! . thou hast given us a name To shield us from the taunts of scorn ; The plant iliat creeps amid the soil A glorious flower hath born * . before fa ' . mwfaMj & ' &h * : We , stanJ yrtft , n uj ^ W , ; Like us , thou wast a toil-worn man , And WQ ;/ B ) W ^ eW «; powt / VJ : » n £ ea . yi
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1835, page 765, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2652/page/9/
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