Page:The poetical works of Robert Burns.djvu/41

BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.

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mare "Maggie" as he would to a comrade, who had shared with him his struggles, toils, and triumphs. The poetry of Burns flows into a wintry world, like a tepid gulf- stream—mitigating harsh climates, breathing genial days, carrying with it spring-time and the cuckoo's note.

Of his humor again — which is merely his love laughing and playing antics in very extravagance of its joy — what can be said, except that it is the freshest, most original, most delightful in the world? What a riot of fun in Tarn O' Shanter ; what strange co-mixture of mirth and awf ulness in Death and Dr. Hornbook ; what extravaganza in the Address to a Haggis ! To Burns's eye the world was dark enough, usually ; but on the gala-days and carnivals of his spirit Mirth rules the hour, ragged Poverty dances all the lighter for his empty pockets, Death himself grins as he is poked in the lean ribs. And if, as is said, from the sweetest wine you can extract the sourest vinegar, one can fancy into what deadly satire this love will congeal itself, when it becomes hate. Burns hates his foe — be it man or doctrine — as intensely as he loves his mistress. Holy Willie 's Prayer is a satirical crucifixion — slow, lingering, inexorable. He hated Hypocrisy, he tore its holy robe, and for the outrage Hypocrisy did not forgive him while he lived, nor has it yet learned to forgive him.

If we applaud the Roman Emperor who found Rome brick and left it marble, what shall we say of the man who found the songs of his country indelicate and left them pure — who made wholesome the air which the spirit and the affections breathe ? And Burns did this. He drove immodesty from love, and coarseness from humor. And not only did he purify existing Scottish song; he added to it all that it has of best and rarest. Since his day, no countryman of his, whatever may be his mood, need be visited by a sense of solitariness, or ache with a pent-up feeling. If he is glad, he will find a song as merry as himself ; if sad, he will find one that will sigh with his own woe. In Burns's songs, love finds an exquisite companionship ; independence a backer and second; conviviality a roaring table, and the best fellows round it; patriotism a deeper love of country, and a gayer scorn of death than even its own. And in so adding to, and purifying Scottish song, Burns has conferred the greatest benefit on his countrymen that it is in the power of a poet to confer.