BURNS AND HIS LANDSCAPE 101 



The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, 

 The birds sang love on every spray, 



Till too, too soon, the glowing west, 

 Proclaim'd the speed of winged day.' 1 



When Burns moved from Ayrshire to Nithsdale, 

 he found at his new home another valley and another 

 river that could minister to his inspiration. The Nith 

 took the place of the Ayr. But it could not wholly 

 fill that place, for its landscape is less ample, the hills 

 come closer down upon the valley, while the river, 

 in its lower course, curves from side to side in a 

 wide alluvial plain, without the variety that marks 

 the lower part of the Ayr. We seem to recognise the 

 influence of these differences in the allusions in the 

 songs. 



The landscapes of Burns are marked by some curious 

 limitations. Though he was born within sight of the 

 picturesque mountain group of Arran, it does not 

 come within his poetic outlook. 2 Though the 'craggy 

 ocean pyramid ' of the Clyde rose so stupendously 

 from the firth in front of him, he makes no use of 

 it further than to tell how 'Meg was deaf as Ailsa 

 Craig.' Its distant grandeur does not seem to have 

 struck his imagination. Indeed, if we examine his 

 treatment of scenery, we may observe that it is 

 the nearer detail that appeals to him. His pictures 

 are exquisite foregrounds with seldom any distinct 

 distance. But perhaps more remarkable still is the 

 small place which the sea takes in the poetry of Burns. 



1 To Mary in Heaven. 



2 This was remarked by Wordsworth in the prefatory note to his 

 lines on Mossgiel. 



