_the dreadful light_: of life and experience.

166 182 _Attic warbler_: the nightingale.

168 184 _sleekit_, sleek: _bickering brattle_, flittering flight: _laith_,
loth: _pattle_, ploughstaff: _whyles_, at times: _a daimenicker_, a
corn-ear now and then: _thrave_, shock: _lave_, rest: _foggage_,
after-grass: _snell_, biting: _but hald_, without dwelling-place: _thole_,
bear: _cranreuch_, hoar-frost: _thy lane_, alone: _a-gley_, off the right
line, awry.

175 188 _stoure_, dust-storm; _braw_, smart.

176 189 _scaith_, hurt: _tent_, guard: _steer_, molest.

177 191 _drumlie_, muddy: _birk_, birch.

178 192 _greet_, cry: _daurna_, dare not.--There can hardly exist a
poem more truly tragic in the highest sense than this: nor, perhaps,
Sappho excepted, has any Poetess equalled it.

180 193 _fou_, merry with drink: _coost_, carried: _unco skeigh_, very
proud: _gart_, forced: _abeigh_, aside: _Ailsa craig_, a rock in the Firth
of Clyde: _grat his een bleert_, cried till his eyes were bleared:
_lowpin_, leaping: _linn_, waterfall: _sair_, sore: _smoor'd_, smothered:
_crouse_ and _canty_, blithe and gay.

181 194 Burns justly named this 'one of the most beautiful songs in
the Scots or any other language.' One stanza, interpolated by Beattie,
is here omitted:--it contains two good lines, but is out of harmony
with the original poem. _Bigonet_, little cap: probably altered from
_beguinette_: _thraw_, twist: _caller_, fresh.

182 195 Burns himself, despite two attempts, failed to improve this
little absolute masterpiece of music, tenderness, and simplicity: this
'Romance of a life' in eight lines.--_Eerie_: strictly, scared:
uneasy.

183 196 _airts_, quarters: _row_, roll: _shaw_, small wood in a
hollow, spinney: _knowes_, knolls. The last two stanzas are not by
Burns.

184 197 _jo_, sweetheart: _brent_, smooth: _pow_, head.

-- 198 _leal_, faithful. St. 3 _fain_, happy.

185 199 Henry VI founded Eton.

188 200 Written in 1773, towards the beginning of Cowper's second
attack of melancholy madness--a time when he altogether gave up
prayer, saying, 'For him to implore mercy would only anger God the
more.' Yet had he given it up when sane, it would have been 'maior
insania.'

191 203 The Editor would venture to class in the very first rank this
Sonnet, which, with 204, records Cowper's gratitude to the Lady whose
affectionate care for many years gave what sweetness he could enjoy to
a life radically wretched. Pet