LANDSCAPE OF BURNS 97 



In the poem from which these lines are quoted, 

 after alluding to the poetic fame of other streams, 

 while those of his own county remained unsung, the 

 poet declares his resolve to atone for this neglect : 



' We'll gar our streams and burnies shine 

 Up wi' the best. 

 We'll sing auld Coila's plains an' fells, 

 Her moors red-brown wi' heather-bells, 

 Her banks an' braes, her dens an' dells.' 



Amply did he fulfil his promise. There is not a river, 

 hardly even a tributary, within his reach, that has not 

 been made famous in his lyrics. In the first bloom 

 of opening manhood it was the Ayr and the Doon 

 that gave him inspiration, and when broken in health 

 and spirits, and with an early grave opening before 

 him, it was by the banks of the Nith that his last 

 poetic impulse arose. 



In his relation to Nature there was this great 

 difference between Burns and his literary contem- 

 poraries and immediate predecessors, that whereas even 

 the best of them wrote rather as pleased spectators 

 of the country, with all its infinite variety of form 

 and colour, of life and sound, of calm and storm, he 

 sang as one into whose very inmost heart the power 

 of these things had entered. For the first time in 

 English literature the burning ardour of a passionate 

 soul went out in tumultuous joy towards Nature. 

 The hills and woods, the streams and dells were to 

 Burns not merely enjoyable scenes to be visited and 

 described. They became part of his very being. In 

 their changeful aspects he found the counterpart of 

 his own variable moods; they ministered to his joys, 



