Life of Robert Burns |
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Page 15
... natural prose order ; sometimes to substitute synonymous ex- pressions for poetical words ; and to supply all the ellipses . Robert and Gilbert were generally at the upper end of the class , even when ranged with boys by far their ...
... natural prose order ; sometimes to substitute synonymous ex- pressions for poetical words ; and to supply all the ellipses . Robert and Gilbert were generally at the upper end of the class , even when ranged with boys by far their ...
Page 19
... natural history . Ro- bert read all these books with an avidity and in- dustry scarcely to be equalled . My father had been a subscriber to Stackhouse's History of the Bible . From this Robert collected a competent knowledge of ancient ...
... natural history . Ro- bert read all these books with an avidity and in- dustry scarcely to be equalled . My father had been a subscriber to Stackhouse's History of the Bible . From this Robert collected a competent knowledge of ancient ...
Page 26
... nature and young genius . It was amidst such scenes that this extraordinary being felt those first indefinite stirrings of immortal ambition , which he has himself shadowed out under the magnificent image of the " blind gropings of ...
... nature and young genius . It was amidst such scenes that this extraordinary being felt those first indefinite stirrings of immortal ambition , which he has himself shadowed out under the magnificent image of the " blind gropings of ...
Page 33
... nature breathe in every line - the images are always just , often originally happy — and the grow- ing refinement of his ear and judgment , may be traced in the terser language and more mellow flow of each successive ballad . The best ...
... nature breathe in every line - the images are always just , often originally happy — and the grow- ing refinement of his ear and judgment , may be traced in the terser language and more mellow flow of each successive ballad . The best ...
Page 35
... nature in a new phasis ; and I engaged several of my school - fellows to keep up a literary correspondence with me . This improv- ed me in composition . I had met with a collec- tion of letters by the wits of Queen Anne's reign , and I ...
... nature in a new phasis ; and I engaged several of my school - fellows to keep up a literary correspondence with me . This improv- ed me in composition . I had met with a collec- tion of letters by the wits of Queen Anne's reign , and I ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance admiration Allan Cunningham appears auld Ayrshire Bachelor's Club bard beautiful bosom brother Burns's celebrated character circumstances Correspondence Cromek Dalswinton dear death delight doubt Dr Currie Dr Moore Dugald Stewart Dumfries Dunlop Edinburgh Elliesland Excise fancy farm father favour favourite feelings Fintray fortune Gavin Hamilton genius Gilbert Burns Gordon Castle grave happy heart Heron Holy Fair honour hope humble Irvine Jacobite Jenny Geddes kind Kirkoswald labour lady language letter lived look manners Mauchline melancholy ment mind mingled Mossgiel never noble occasion parish passion perhaps period person pleasure poems poet poet's poetical poetry political pride reader Reliques Robert Burns says scenes Scotch Scotland Scots Scottish sentiments Shanter sion society song soul spect spirit stanzas talents Tarbolton taste thing Thomson thou thought tion verses Walker William Burnes wish writing young youth
Popular passages
Page 280 - THESE, as they change, ALMIGHTY FATHER, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of THEE. Forth in the pleasing Spring THY beauty walks, THY tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields ; the softening air is balm ; Echo the mountains round ; the forest smiles ; And every sense, and every heart is joy. Then comes THY glory in the Summer months, With light and heat refulgent. Then THY sun...
Page 17 - Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn, that I used to strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough to be a soldier ; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins, which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest.
Page 197 - JEolian harp, passive, takes the impression of the passing accident; or do these workings argue something within us above the trodden clod? I own myself partial to such proofs of those awful and important realities: a God that made all things, man's immaterial and immortal nature, and a world of weal or woe beyond death and the grave.
Page 184 - And mony a hill between ; But, day and night, my fancy's flight Is ever wi' my Jean. I see her in the dewy flowers, I see her sweet and fair : I hear her in the tunefu...
Page 136 - ... in the whole strain of his bearing and conversation, a most thorough conviction that in the society of the most eminent men of his nation, he was exactly where he was entitled to be; hardly deigned to flatter them by exhibiting even an occasional symptom of being flattered...
Page 118 - Burns seemed much affected by the print, or rather the ideas which it suggested to his mind. He actually shed tears. He asked whose the lines were, and it chanced that nobody but myself remembered that they occur in a half-forgotten poem of Langhorne's called by the unpromising title of 'The Justice of the Peace'.
Page 16 - In my infant and boyish days, too, I owed much to an old woman who resided in the family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition. She had, I suppose, the largest collection in the country of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, deadlights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, giants, enchanted towers, dragons, and other trumpery.
Page 197 - I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and, passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow and life a dream.
Page 22 - Meditations, had formed the whole of my reading. The collection of songs was my vade mecum. I pored over them, driving my cart, or walking to labour, song by song, verse by verse; carefully noting the true tender, or sublime, from affectation and fustian. I am convinced I owe to this practice much of my critic-craft, such as it is.
Page 35 - I staid, I did nothing but craze the faculties of my soul about her, or steal out to meet her; and the two last nights of my stay in the country, had sleep been a mortal sin, the image of this modest and innocent girl had kept me guiltless.