Edwards, Envid. Hershell MODERN SCOTTISH POETS WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES. BRECHIN: D. H. EDWARDS. 1881. Lilis Gleiu 24422 PREFACE. OES Nature, when she denies to the age a royal poetking by right of mighty genius-concede the gift in another form, diffusing the poetic art in lesser minds? While it must be admitted that there is much true and genuine poetry floating about amongst us, it cannot be said that there is at present any great poet who is known to, and reaches the hearts of the masses. The Literary World, in reviewing a batch of poets, recently said—“A grotesque fancy suggests itself, and will not away, as we glance over the scores and scores of volumes, all published under the heading of poetry. It is simply impossible that so many authors should be great poets. Does Nature grant, instead of one colossal statue, resplendent in golden purity, that the fine gold shall be beaten thin, and thus become the inferior possession of the multitude? We do not attempt to answer the quaint fancy, but one thing is certain-much of the poetry of the present day is doubtless pure gold, though beaten out, often to attenuation." Popular poetry has been compared to the wild rose, the stock out of which the richer garden roses are grown. We suspect that it must be the minor poetry of England that is here referred to. The Glasgow Herald, commenting on the remarks of a writer on the subject of the dearth of English ballads, who could not understand how it has come about that English cultivated poetry is so rich when the wild stock is so poor, remarks that "the Scotch Lowlands, peopled by substantially the same race as that which inhabits England, have been prolific in peasant poets, but the Scotch peasantry have for centuries been educated, whereas the English peasantry are to this day, for the most part, sunk in ignorance. The portions of Scotland in which educa tion has been most widely diffused are precisely those which have produced the largest number of working-class poets; and it may also be noted that the counties distinguished for their religious fervour, and which are flowered with the tombs of the Covenanters, have also been the most tuneful. In the West Country, for example, there is hardly a village that has not produced its bard; Paisley has been likened to an aviary of singing birds; and in the land of Wallace, Bruce, and Burns, No brook may pass along Or hillock rise, without its song." It does seem singular that the wild rose of song, which blooms so freely in rugged Scotland, is rarely to be met with in the garden of England. While superior education, and independent thought and action, which have been so long the heritage of Scotchmen, may in some measure account for the greater number of song writers here as compared with England, we believe that poets, like other gifted actors, are to the manner born. And no doubt such inspiring natural surroundings as rugged hills, swift flowing rivers, and brawling streams, inspire her sons. Many think poetry earns its title chiefly through a literary skill in stringing musical words to musical cadence, producing a soothing effect upon ear, which many consider sufficient charm without any suggestion of noble or pathetic thought. We like to see the combination of the artist and the poetthe inspirational idea being the centre, around which is thrown the robe of a delicate and musical wording. In every poem the thought should be first, while the artistic feeling suggests appropriate expression. Much has been of late written on the subject of the position poetry occupies in the Arts. Imagination is the spiritual eye, and if a poem fail to kindle it, though it may charm the senses or the intellect, it cannot touch the soul; and poetry which does not touch the soul is, it is needless to say, of quality below the highest. "The plastic Arts," says Stendhall, "appeal to the imagination through the senses, poetry to the senses of imagination." And this is at once the chief difference between poetry and all the other Arts, and the secret of poetry's superiority. Yet the outward sensuous picture which painting, for example, presents is infinitely more satisfying to the senses than anything to which poetry can attain; but the undercurrent of spirituality, the ideal intellectual beauty, which it is the aim of |