BURNS SELECTED POEMS EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND A GLOSSARY BY J. LOGIE ROBERTSON, M.A. Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1889 [All rights reserved] PREFATORY NOTE. It is hoped that this Selection from the poetry of Burns, while fairly representative of his best work, will serve also to shew the versatility of his genius. The Jolly Beggars and Holy Willie's Prayer it has been found necessary to exclude altogether, brilliant and characteristic specimens of his poetical quality though they are. From the admitted poems an occasional line here, or stanza there, has, for one reason or another, also been dropped. It is with the utmost reluctance that the Editor has ventured upon any alteration of the Text. These alterations are few, and of the slightest. The Selection has been divided into 'Poems' and 'Songs,' and each series arranged as accurately as possible in strict chronological order. It is not only that such an arrangement reveals the development of the Author's poetical faculty: it also casts a suggestive light upon the history of his life. Special attention has been paid to the Notes. Here only I have offered, as the occasion required, and the space at my disposal permitted, some remarks on the characteristics of Burns's style, and on his indebtedness to the Scottish and English poets of the eighteenth century. Care has been taken, by collation with the various editions, to give the most approved Text; and where |