Robert Burns - How To Know Him by William Allan Neilson
page 22 of 334 (06%)
page 22 of 334 (06%)
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books already mentioned, become acquainted with Shakespeare, Pope
(including the translation of Homer), Thomson, Shenstone, Allan Ramsay, and a _Select Collection of Songs, Scotch and English_; with the _Spectator_, the _Pantheon_, Locke's _Essay on the Human Understanding_, Sterne, and Henry Mackenzie. To these must be added some books on farming and gardening, a good deal of theology, and, of course, the Bible. The pursuing of intellectual interests such as are implied in this list is the more significant when we remember that it was carried on in the scanty leisure of a life of labor so severe that it all but broke the poet's health, and probably left permanent marks on his physique. Yet he had energy left for still other avocations. It was when he was no more than fifteen that he first experienced the twin passions that came to dominate his life, love and song. The girl who was the occasion was his partner in the harvest field, Nelly Kilpatrick; the song he addressed to her is the following: HANDSOME NELL O, once I lov'd a bonnie lass, Aye, and I love her still, And whilst that virtue warms my breast I'll love my handsome Nell. As bonnie lasses I hae seen, And mony full as braw, [fine] But for a modest gracefu' mien The like I never saw. |
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