that did not
reach, it is true, to the great tragic tones of Shakespeare nor to the
delicate and filmy subtleties of Shelley. But he could utter pathos
almost intolerably piercing, and overwhelming remorse; gaiety as fresh
and inspiriting as the song of a lark; roistering mirth; keen irony;
and a thousand phases of passion. This he did in a verse of amazing
variety--sometimes tender and caressing; sometimes rushing like a
torrent.

Finally, it must be insisted again, in that aspect in which he is most
nearly supreme, the writing of songs, he is musician as well as poet.
Though he made no tunes, he saved hundreds; saved them not merely for
the antiquary and the connoisseur but for the great mass of lovers of
sweet and simple melody; saved them by marrying them to fit and
immortal words. It is for this most of all that Scotland and the world
love Burns.

THE END

INDEX

_A Man's a Man for a' That_, quoted 158, 317.

_A Red, Red Rose_, 101, quoted 102.

_Address to the Deil_, 38, 86, 281, quoted 282.

_Address to the Unco Guid_, 38, quoted 176, 189.

_Adventures of Telemachus_, 17.

_Ae Fond Kiss_, quoted 56-57, 75, 103.

_AEneid_ (Douglas's), 268.

_Afton Water_, quoted 116.

Ainslie, Robert, 50.

Alloway, 4 ff.

Animals, Burns's feeling for, 270, 271.

Armour, James, 35, 37-39.

Armour, Jean, 35-39, 50, 55, 93, 110, 122, 172.

Arnold, Matthew, 206, 237.

_Auld Lang Syne_, 98, quoted 100.

Auld Lichts, 179, 180, 184, 188.

_Auld Rob Morris_, 115, quoted 121.

Bachelor's Club, 22.

_Bannocks o' Barley_, quoted 165.

_Bard's Epitaph, A_, 294, quoted 308.

Beattie, 86.

Beethoven, 95.

Begbie, Ellison, 22-23, 27, 110.

_Bessy and Her Spinnin'-Wheel_, quoted 145.

Biography, Official, 68.

Blacklock, Doctor, 39.

Blair, Doctor, 45, 86.

Blair Athole, 51.

Boar's Head Tavern, 240.

_Bonnie Lesley_, 115, quoted 118.

_Braw Braw Lads_, quoted 140.

Brow-on-Solway, 67.

Browning, 320.

Burnes, William, 3-8.

Burns, Agnes (Brown), 4, 8.

Burns, Gilbert, 5-6, 15, 31, 59, 90.

Burns, Robert, his career: autobiographical letter, 1-2; parentage
and early life, 3-23; schooling, 5-8, 15, 17; reading, 6-8, 18-19;
study of French, 16; folk-lore, 18; overwork, 19; first song, 20;
flax-dressing, 23; early love-affairs, 22, 27; Mossgiel, 31-44;
Elizabeth Paton, 32-35; Jean Armour, 35-36; Mary Campbell (Highland
Mary), 36-37; West Indian project, 37-39; Elizabe