132 aIvE;xandhr WILSON : poet-naturalist 



The vivid scene of the home-going, the scolding 

 and the fright of Meg when her Watty pretends 

 to have " 'hsted" in the army are reahstic and are 

 depicted in language that is expressive and pic- 

 turesque. It was of this piece that an interesting 

 story was told by Burns's widow to Dr. Robert 

 Chambers. The poet was sitting at his desk by 

 the window when he heard a local hawker crying 

 out "Watty and Meg, a new ballad by Robert 

 Burns." Burns thrust his head out of the open 

 window and called out to the man, whom he 

 knew, "That's a Ice, Andy, but I would make your 

 plack a bawbee if it were mine." There were not 

 wanting at the time people who credited the 

 poem to the greater poet, but in spite of its real 

 merits it has not the imprint upon it of the genius 

 of Burns. 



Two years before "Watty and Meg" was 

 printed Wilson had published his first volume of 

 verse. The most notable thing which it contained 

 was "The Disconsolate Wren," an early indica- 

 tion of its author's devotion to nature. The 

 motto which is prefixed to it from the "Seasons" 

 of James Thomson suggests a healthy influence 

 which had come into his life from the poetry of 

 this early nature poet. Simple as the poem is — 

 its theme is only of a little wren whose nest had 

 been destroyed — it is yet distinguished by several 

 lines descriptive of nature that are almost match- 

 less of their kind. "The morn," he says, "was 

 keekin' frae the East," and the familiar picture 

 takes on a new freshness from the quaintness of 

 his phrasing. 



