Robert Burns-Scotland’s Famous Bard.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 344, 27 January 1937, Page 2

Robert Burns-Scotland’s Famous Bard.

‘THE IMMORTAL MEMORY’ j Eloquent Address On Life Of Robert Burns. Proposing the toast of w Th&3 Immortal Memory,” at .'the Burns night held last evening by the Taranaki Provincial Scottish Society, Rev. J. Paterson, M.A., emphasised tihe kindly and sympathetic qualities »of |the national poet of Scotland. His eloquent address was listened to wUUh wrapt interest by the large gathering present. “We meet to-night to commemorate the immortal memory of Robert Burns, no proud monarch, no great scholar, no mighty conqueror or statesman, but the ploughman poet of Scotland,” said Mr Paterson in his opening remarks. “Why do feel under such a debt to him, to celebrate his birthday year after year? Why do we Scots rally round

his name in pride and in gratitude? And why do so many not Scots by birth share with us in remembering him? Think why to Scotland his memory is so precious. He put Scotland on the map, for to him our race owes her revived claim to a national existence. He made Scotchmen realise the worth of their national history, their national traditions, ideals and characeristics. He revealed the heart of Scotland to the ; world, in its weakness and in its I strength, that strange passionate | romanticism hidden shyly behind a I certain dourness and grim humour. I He taught the world to sing the songs of our people, sending Ae ! melody of Scottish music and the strange beauty of the Scottish idiom round the world, thus as Lord Rosebery has said, ‘preserving the Scottish language for ever, for mankind will never allow to die that dam in which his songs and poems are enI shrined.’ But even so does he hold our hearts? Partly for the story of his life; partly for the special naI ture of his poetry.

Rise from Poverty. < “His life was an amazing romance, much in it of tragedy but as’ a whole surely a victory. From deep poverty, little of worldly opportunity, from distress and sickness, some admittedly caused by his own faults, he wrung his glorious poetry, revealing from beneath a sordid exterijor of condition's, his possession of a mind and heart of rare beauty, of quivering tenderness and of a largeness of insight and sympathy that could enter into the life of all his fellows, of the dumb beasts and of the world of inanimate nature. He clothed life in all its aspects with romance, beauty and a gracious wisdom. Surely whatever the outward circu’mstances, the ultimate result of his career is an amazing triumph. He stands forever among men as a conqueror of circumstances, as one who wrestled and wion victory. Wherever and iso long as mankind honours | grandeur of soul and nobility of ; mind, and the loving comradeship oi I the heart above material wealth and

| artificial splendours of rank, there , and then} shall Robert Burns be honoured and loved. His very weakness and follies bring him nearer to j us erring, stumbling, fellow mortals. He in spite of all could leave sd | treasured a heritage to mankind; lie, | in spite of all, could cherish and express so wondrous an inner wealth of mind and heart. He thrills so as to be an inspiration in our lives and to leave as the embodiment of what is best in us, some memory mankind will not willingly let die.

Songs and Poetry. “But there is in his songs and poetry a gift to all the worlj, men rejoice to cherish. His writings are no studied exercise of an art painfully acquired but the spontaneous outgushings of the man. Every event, every emotion, every relationship with others flowered in him into song—and some of it supreme song. That is why his poetry has so made j an appeal; it is natural, inevitable, the glorious expressing of ideas and emotions all men can share, simply as men. Think of his love poems—no far-fetched conceits or weird eroticism —but the sheer healthy love of the ordinary man and woman raised to sublime beauty manifested in glowing simplicity and perfect naturalness of expression. His poems of patriotism, throb with passion, but a passion arising from no jingoistic hate or inflamed egotism, of which we are hearing so much these days, but a love of country based on his joy in her woods and streams and hills, in her pleasant scenery, in memories of home . and childhood, and in her love of liberty and righteousness I —a love of country that hides no hate of others but rather a glad call- to all the world to share with him in what is worthy and lovely in his Scottish land. His Kindly Humour.

“His humour is large, broad, and kindly and, except when expressing i the few acerbities he nourished, without a sting, and the songs of his sorrow, his cry to Mary in heaven, his elegies over friends who have

passed beyond, his tragic leavetaking of his native land —in these how he gathers up the universal pain of the human: heart, and his sturdy independence, his voicing of the j worth of man as man, his scorn of j all narrowness, tyranny and oppres- j sion, in these he was Jhe singer and still is the singer of the soul of man seeking against all ignorance, oppression and injustice, freedom to take wing in the ampler air of God’s heaven, refusing to be shackled down, by man-invented chains and devilinspired theories, economic, social or religious, and finally, for I must draw to a close, Burns is to be ever remembered and honoured because he is pre-eminently the poet of the two supreme Christian virtues of pity and forgiveness. With a large pity I he sang the woes and needs of man and beast, and with a gracious I humour he called men to a forgiving charity towards the frailties and I faults of his brother man and sister \ women. Wherever heroic achieve- | ment is honoured, noble ideals cherished, and splendid beauty loved, the name, the life and songs of Robert Burns will be held in immortal memory,” concluded Mr Paterson.