sence of a thousand love tales" is in that one little song. Because
he embodies the new spirit of romanticism, critics give him a high place in
the history of our literature; and because his songs go straight to the
heart, he is the poet of common men.

Of Burns's many songs for music little need be said. They have found their
way into the hearts of a whole people, and there they speak for themselves.
They range from the exquisite "O wert thou in the cauld blast," to the
tremendous appeal to Scottish patriotism in "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace
bled," which, Carlyle said, should be sung with the throat of the
whirlwind. Many of these songs were composed in his best days, when
following the plow or resting after his work, while the music of some old
Scotch song was ringing in his head. It is largely because he thought of
music while he composed that so many of his poems have the singing quality,
suggesting a melody as we read them.

Among his poems of nature, "To a Mouse" and "To a Mountain Daisy" are
unquestionably the best, suggesting the poetical possibilities that daily
pass unnoticed under our feet. These two poems are as near as Burns ever
comes to appreciating nature for its own sake. The majority of his poems,
like "Winter" and "Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon," regard nature in the
same way that Gray regarded it, as a background for the play of human
emotions.

Of his poems of emotion there is an immense number. It is a curious fact
that the world is always laughing and crying at the same moment; and we can
hardly read a page of Burns without finding this natural juxtaposition of
smiles and tears. It is noteworthy also that all strong emotions, when
expressed naturally, lend themselves to poetry; and Burns, more than any
other writer, has an astonishing faculty of describing his own emotions
with vividness and simplicity, so that they appeal instantly to our own.
One cannot read, "I love my Jean," for instance, without being in love with
some idealized woman; or "To Mary in Heaven," without sharing the personal
grief of one who has loved and lost.

Besides the songs of nature and of human emotion, Burns has given us a
large number of poems for which no general title can be given. Noteworthy
among these are "A man's a man for a' that," which voices the new romantic
estimate of humanity; "The Vision," from which we get a strong impression
of Burns's early ideals; the "Epistle to a Young Friend," from which,
rather