PREFACE II 



the students of Burns, Fergusson, and Tannahill as 

 to the admirers of our poet-naturalist. It is an in- 

 vestigation of a time of doubt and questioning, of a 

 period whose symbol should be an interrogation mark. 

 Each of those four poets struggled to solve the same 

 questions and each attempted to do it in a different 

 manner. Burns, the truest poet of them all, fell in 

 the struggle, bruised and broken ; Fergusson, a lesser, 

 but a no less real, poet, found that his answer led to a 

 mad-house; Tannahill chose the sickle of self-sought 

 death with which to cut the Gordian-knot, but it was 

 the feeblest poet of them all who proved the strongest 

 man. Alexander Wilson found the freedom that he 

 sought in a new land. Those early Scotch days, their 

 problem and its answer, were vital factors in the man's 

 life. 



The letters between Wilson and Jefferson are here 

 for the first time printed in full and I believe that they 

 too will be of interest to many readers for other rea- 

 sons than a mere interest in Wilson and his life. No 

 admirer of Jefferson, at least, will regret the space 

 which has been given to them. 



In selecting the poems which are reprinted in this 

 volume, care has been taken to consider first the merits 

 of the verses and second their character as represent- 

 ing the nature of Wilson's poetical work. "The 

 American Blue-bird," "The Osprey," "The Invita- 

 tion," and "The Solitary Tutor" are examples of the 

 best that their author accomplished in his mature 

 years, after he had come to America. "Watty and 

 Meg" represents both the best that he wrote on his 

 native soil as well as his most successful use of the 

 Scotch vernacular. Even the touch of coarseness 

 which it contains, is characteristic of the early period 

 of his life. 



The texts of "The Invitation" and "The Solitarv 



