PREFACE

TO THE

FIRST EDITION OF BURNS'S POEMS.

[THE first edition of Burns's poetry was published at Kilmarnock towards the end of July, 1786, with the title, Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, by Robert Burns, and the motto:

"The Simple Bard, unbroke to rules of art,
He pours the wild effusions of the heart:

And if inspired, 'tis Nature's powers inspire;

Hers all the melting thrill, and hers the kindling fire."

Cry and Prayer the Deil

The Author's Earnest

The Holy Fair - Address to Mailie To J. S**** [Smith] A Dream The Vision - Halloween The Auld Farmer's New-year Morning's Salutation to his Auld Mare Maggie - The Cotter's Saturday Night To a Mouse Epistle to Davie — The Ode Despondency, an Man was

Lament

Made to Mourn Winter, a Dirge - A Prayer in the Prospect of Death-To a Mountain Daisy To Ruin Epistle to a Young Friend a Scotch Bard gone to the West Indies - · A Ded

VOL. I.

3

On

ication to G**** H*******, Esq. — To a Louse Epistle to J. L******, an old Scots Bard - To the Same Epistle to W. S******, Ochiltree Epistle to J. R****** Song, "It was upon a Lammas Night - Song, "Now Westlin' Winds " Song, "From thee, Eliza, I must go❞— The Farewell to the Brethren of St. James's Lodge, Torbolton-Epitaphs and Epigrams - A Bard's

Epitaph.

It was introduced by the following preface

"The following trifles are not the production of the poet, who, with all the advantages of learned art, and perhaps amid the elegances and idlenesses of upper life, looks down for a rural theme, with an eye to Theocritus or Virgil. To the author of this, these and other celebrated names, their countrymen, are, in their original languages, a fountain shut up, and a book sealed. Unacquainted with the necessary requisites for commencing poet by rule, he sings the sentiments and manners he felt and saw in himself and his rustic compeers around him, in his and their native language. Though a rhymer from his earliest years, at least from the earliest impulses of the softer passions, it was not till very lately that the applause, perhaps the partiality, of friendship, wakened his vanity so far as to make him think anything of his worth shewing; and none of the following works were ever composed with a view to the press. To amuse himself with the little creations of his own fancy, amid the toil and fatigues of a laborious life; to transcribe the various feel

ings, the loves, the griefs, the hopes, the fears in his own breast; to find some kind of counterpoise to the struggles of a world, always an alien scene, a task uncouth to the poetical mind, these were his motives for courting the Muses, and in these he found poetry to be its own reward.

"Now that he appears in the public character of an author, he does it with fear and trembling. So dear is fame to the rhyming tribe, that even he, an obscure, nameless bard, shrinks aghast at the thought of being branded as an impertinent blockhead, obtruding his nonsense on the world; and because he can make a shift to jingle a few doggerel Scotch rhymes together, looks upon himself as a poet of no small consequence forsooth!

"It is an observation of that celebrated poet1 whose divine elegies do honour to our language, our nation, and our species, that 'Humility has depressed many a genius to a hermit, but never raised one to fame!' If any critic catches at the 'word genius, the author tells him, once for all, that he certainly looks upon himself as possessed of some poetic abilities, otherwise his publishing in the manner he has done would be a manœuvre below the worst character which, he hopes, his worst enemy will ever give him. But to the genius of a Ramsay, or the glorious dawnings of the poor, unfortunate Fergusson, he, with equal unaffected sincerity, declares that, even in his highest pulse of vanity, he has not the most distant pretensions. These two justly-admired Scotch poets he has often had in his eye in the

1 Shenstone.

following pieces, but rather with a view to kindle at their flame, than for servile imitation.

"To his subscribers the author returns his most sincere thanks. Not the mercenary bow over a counter, but the heart-throbbing gratitude of the bard, conscious how much he owes to benevolence and friendship for gratifying him, if he deserves it, in that dearest wish of every poetic bosom to be distinguished. He begs his readers, particularly the learned and the polite, who may honour him with a perusal, that they will make every allowance for education and circumstances of life; but if, after a fair, candid, and impartial criticism, he shall stand convicted of dulness and nonsense, let him be done by as he would in that case do by others let him be condemned, without mercy, to contempt and oblivion."

DEDICATION

PREFIXED TO THE SECOND EDITION.

PUBLISHED APRIL 21ST, 1787.

To the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Caledonian Hunt.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN. - A Scottish bard, proud of the name, and whose highest ambition is to sing in his country's service where shall he so properly look for patronage as to the illustrious names of his native land, those who bear the honours, and inherit the virtues, of their ancestors? The poetic genius of my country found me, as the prophetic bard Elijah did Elisha, at the plough, and threw her inspiring mantle over me. She bade me sing the loves, the joys, the rural scenes and rural pleasures of my native soil, in my native tongue. I tuned my wild, artless notes, as she inspired. She whispered me to come to this ancient metropolis of Caledonia, and lay my songs under your honoured protection. I now obey her dictates.

Though much indebted to your goodness, I do not approach you, my Lords and Gentlemen, in the usual style of dedication, to thank you for favours; that path is so hackneyed by prostituted

past