Burns Well Read
;AM O° SHANTER is a difficult | poem to read aloud. To the unpractised the proper interpretation and therefore modulation of the Scottish dialect is not at first apparent, with the | result that the tale seems a trifle longwinded and the climax scarcely seems | to justify all that led up to it. But Harold L. Wightman’s delivery of the poem over 3YC during the last few weeks, apart from being one of the best readings in the vernacular that I have heard, was a revelation of how Tam o’ Shanter should be interpreted. With all the changes of mood rung throughout | the verses, from compassionate amusement at Tam to the description of the | stormy night and the grim devil's rites | at the Kirk of Alloway, it became very easy indeed to see Burns in the throes of composition. His wife and children | : ; :
came to call him for tea but left him undisturbed seeing him busy with his notes. On returning later to the river bank there was Burns pacing back and forth "reciting very loud with tears tolling down his cheeks."
Westcliff
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540115.2.18.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 756, 15 January 1954, Page 9
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184Burns Well Read New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 756, 15 January 1954, Page 9
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