It is clear from this poem that at the time of its composi tion Burns had thought of publishing, but had as yet no sufficient reason for doing so. He was, meanwhile, content to rhyme for the enjoyment it affords him. The lively sense of enjoyment expressed in this poem is indeed in striking contrast to the sombre tones of 'Man was made to Mourn' and the verses 'To a Mouse,' probably composed about the same time.

* Variation-'Rambling.'

+ James Smith, the son of a Mauchline merchant, and brother of the Jean Smith whose 'wit' was celebrated by Burns, and who married his friend and correspondent, James Candlish, was born in 1765. For a time he was in business as a linen-draper in his native town; but, after 'an affair cognizable by the kirk-session,' started, in partnership with one Miller, a calico-printing manufactory on the banks of the Avon, near Linlithgow. It failed, and Smith migrated to Jamaica, where it is understood he died while still a young

man.

B

CHAPTER VI.

MOSSGIEL Continued.

URNS was now meditating much upon his position, and the possible bearing of his poetical tendencies on his success in life. So much may be discerned in the several epistles he had written to his rhyming acquaintances, Sillar, Lapraik, and Simson, and to his friend Smith, during the course of the present year of flowing inspiration. At length we have the final struggle between the 'world' and his poetic mission, ending in the triumph of that mission, expressed in a poem which is undoubtedly the high-water mark of his inspiration.

Duan, a term of Ossian's for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his Cath-Loda, vol. 2 of M'Pherson's Translation.-B.

+ Curling is the Scottish national ice-game, played with curling-stones on ice, and somewhat resembling the game of bowls. The scene on the ice is an animated one; hence 'roaring play.'

But stringing blethers up in rhyme, idle stories, nonsense

For fools to sing.

When click! the string the snick did draw;

An' jee! the door gaed to the wa';

An' by my ingle-lowe I saw,

Now bleezin bright,

A tight, outlandish hizzie, braw,

Come full in sight.

oath

latch

fire

blazing

wench-handsome

*This was the parlour, or 'ben hoose,' of the farmhouse, and at the end next Mauchline.

It contained 'fixed' beds along the back wall.

Ye need na doubt, I held my whisht;
The infant aith, half-form'd, was crusht;
I glowr'd as eerie's I'd been dusht,

In some wild glen ;*

kept silence

When sweet, like modest Worth, she blusht,
An' stepped ben.

oath

into the inner room

Her mantle large, of greenish hue,

My gazing wonder chiefly drew;

Deep lights and shades, bold-mingling, threw

A lustre grand;

straight

none

* 'I stared as full of superstitious fear as if I had been thrown to the ground by meeting a being of the other world in some wild glen.'

This expression occurs in the Epistle to James Smith,' p. 254.

In the first edition the line stood thus:

'And such a leg! my Bess, I ween.'

Indignation at the conduct of Jean induced him to take the compliment from her, and bestow it on Elizabeth Paton. In the first Edinburgh edition, the indignant feeling having subsided, the line was restored as above.

§ 'Clean' is often used in Scotland to describe a handsome figure or limb-clean-cut. Such is the meaning here intended.

And seem'd, to my astonish'd view,
A well-known land.

Here, rivers in the sea were lost;
There, mountains to the skies were toss't;
Here, tumbling billows mark'd the coast,
With surging foam;

There, distant shone Art's lofty boast,

The lordly dome.

Here, Doon pour'd down his far-fetch'd floods ;

* Ayr, whose charter dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century. This and the next six stanzas were added in the second edition, for the purpose, apparently, of complimenting Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop and other influential friends of the poet. The Wallaces.-B.