SCOTLAND’S POET

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 21

SCOTLAND’S POET

Burns’s Love of Nature A MODEST EULOGIUM (By a Scot.) To the Scot, in whatever land he may be, that most important day in the year again approaches—the day that brought to them their poet, and to the world in general an intellectual benefactor. In all parts of the earth and in many languages are his words quoted to-day, and everywhere his songs inspire to greater effort. Everyone who admires Burns and his works finds pleasures, on the anniversary of his birthday, in seeking others with like enthusiasm in commemorating his name and keeping green his memory. _A child of Nature, born in a land so richly endowed with her fairest handiwork, gave to the poetixsmind o£ Burns unlimited study. “Oh I Caledonia, stern and wild. Meet nurse for a poetic child.” Everywhere does Scotland possess such scenes of rare natural beauty from the gentle murmuring burn of the dale or meadow moss-oarpeted to its pebbly edge with banks of wild flowers in Nature’s own profusion and variety, trying to imitate which the hand of man could but fail. The woodbine and wild rose pour forth their fragrance under the calm aud kindly shade of hazel, birk or alder, providing a continuous bower Elysian, in which the feathered songsters join in chorus, singing their song of freedom; to the wilder mountain torrent, raging yet majestic, where Nature is more stern, the crag, as if seeking to make barriel’s to its will, bur speeds it on its way till, reaching the plain, its fury is subdued on the bosom of the winding -waters of the valley; the lofty Ben from which it sprang clothed in a robe of purple, its hem the birken forest, its jewels the lichened crag and boulder (from whaur the woodcock spies his foe), the golden autumn line of birk blending with the purple summit, and the dense and intermixed foliage of bronze, green and gold in the valley below divided by its silvery stream. On such scenes ns these the poet’s soul can feast to overflowing, and only the poet’s pen can convey the impression made on the mind. Burns’s love for the scenic beauty of his native land brought forth from the depths of his heart n volume of song that has reached the hearts of so many people. His whole soul was engulfed in admiration of Nature’s gifts so lavishly bestowed,_ and their peaceful influence inspired him to express their grandeur sweetlj’ and revealed to him their purity compared with the polluted state of mankind.