ie_ and _The Twa
Dogs_; _Address to a Mouse_, _Man was made to Mourn_, _The Vision_, _A
Winter's Night_, and _The Epistle to a Young Friend_. Perhaps of all
these poems _The Vision_ is the most important. It is an epoch-marking
poem in the poet's life. All that he had previously written had been
leading to this; the finer the poem the more surely was it bringing him
to this composition. The time was bound to come when he had to settle
for himself finally and firmly what his work in life was to be. Was
poetry to be merely a pastime; a recreation after the labours of the day
were done; a solace when harvests failed and ruin stared the family in
the face? That question Burns answered when he sat down by the
ingle-cheek, and, looking backward, mused on the years of youth that had
been spent 'in stringing blethers up in rhyme for fools to sing.' He saw
what he might have been; he knew too well what he was--'half-mad,
half-fed, half-sarket.' Yet the picture of what he might have been he
dismissed lightly, almost disdainfully; for he saw what he might be
yet--what he should be. Turning from the toilsome past and the
unpromising present, he looked to the future with a manly assurance of
better things. He should shine in his humble sphere, a rustic bard; his
to

'Preserve the dignity of Man,
With soul erect;
And trust, the Universal Plan
Will all protect.'

The poem is pitched on a high key; the keynote is struck in the opening
lines, and the verses move to the end with stateliness and dignity. It
is calm, contemplative, with that artistic restraint that comes of
conscious power. Burns took himself seriously, and knew that if he were
true to his genius he would become the poet and prophet of his
fellow-men.

It is worth while dwelling a little on this particular poem, because it
marks a crisis in Burns's life. At this point he shook himself free from
the tyranny of the soil. He had considered all things, and his
resolution for authorship was taken. Some of the other poems will be
mentioned afterwards; meantime we have to consider another crisis in his
life--some aspects of his nature less pleasing, some episodes in his
career dark and unlovely.

Speaking of the effect _Holy Willie's Prayer_ had on the kirk-session,
he says that they actually held three meetings to see if their holy
artillery could be pointed against profane rhymers. 'Unluckily for me,'
he adds, 'my idle wanderings led m