(ben). Lines 8 and 9. Jenny sees that the visit is not displeasing to her parents, since her father chats familiarly (cracks) of horses, ploughs, and cattle. Line 7. The lad is so shy (blate) and bashful (laithfu') that he doesn't know how to act. Line 9. The mother is glad that her child is respected like other girls (the lave).

Stanzas 9 and 10 are an unnecessary digression and add nothing to the effect of the poem. Notice the difference in vocabulary.

Suggestion 5. Point out the Scottish words in these stanzas which you still use colloquially. Give sentences in which you might use each of them. What is the force of wily in line 5, stanza 7? Notice the two spellings of the word eye in these stanzas. Justify this.

e. Stanza 11. Now their supper crowns their simple board.

(1) The family at their supper of porridge and milk.

(2) The mother, full of pride in her housewifery, presses her choicest food upon the lad.

Note 7. Line 2. The wholesome porridge, the chief food of Scotland. Lines 3-4. The milk (soupe) comes from their one cow, Hawkie, who is chewing her cud on the other side of the partition (yont the hallan). Lines 5.9. The mother, in honor of the lad, brings out her thriftily saved (well-hained), well-flavored (fell) cheese (kebbuck). And after the boy is urged to eat, and after he has pronounced it good, she tells him that it was two months old when last the flax (lint) was in flower.

Suggestion 6. Enumerate all the details which enter into the picture of stanza 11. Put the stanza into modern English.

f. Stanzas 12-16. Family Worship.

(1) The group around the fire.

(2) The Cotter reads the sacred page from the great ha'-Bible.

Note 8. Ha'-Bible. A large Bible used for family worship and kept in the principal apartment of the house. Line 6, stanza 12. The gray locks on his temples (lyart haffets) growing thin and spare. Line 9, stanza 12. From the notes in an old volume of Burns's poems, we quote the following:

"Gilbert Burns, in writing of The Cotter's Saturday

Night, says, 'Robert had frequently remarked to me that he thought there was something peculiarly venerable in the phrase, Let us worship God, used by a decent, sober head of a family introducing family worship. To this sentiment of the author the world is indebted for The Cotter's Saturday Night."

Dundee, Elgin and Martyrs are the names of Scottish psalm tunes. The first is found in modern hymn books. Sacred page refers to the Old Testament; Christian volume, to the New Testament. Guise (line 1, stanza 3), manner; beets, increases, i. e., increases the volume of praise ascending heavenward. Stanza 14, Read Genesis 12 and Exodus 17. Royal bard, David. The second name, i. e., of the Trinity. Stanza 15. Sped, fared. Patmos, etc. The allusion is to St. John, and Revelations 18. Wales, line 8, stanza 12, means "chooses." Suggestion 7. The phrase wi' serious face modifies what? What is the meaning of the word bonnet in this connection? Discuss the transition from the vernacular to literary English. What is the significance of the epithet priest-like? Explain line 9, stanza 13; line 6, stanza 15. Find in Pope's "Windsor Forest" and in Pope's "Essay on Man" the lines quoted in this portion of our poem. What is the meaning of line 8, stanza 16? What does Burns mean by lines 7-9, stanza 13? How far do you agree with him?

g. Stanza 17.

Note 9. In this stanza, Burns comments on the scene just described. Praise that comes from the heart and is sincere is more often found in family worship in a humble home than in the formal, ceremonial worship of some stately cathedral.

h. Stanza 18. The Parents' Secret Prayer.

Suggestion 8. Rewrite line 1, stanza 18. Notice the beauty of the stanza.

4. Conclusion. Stanzas 19-21.

a. Value of scenes like these.

b. Invocation to Scotia, my dear, my native soil.

c. Invocation to the Patriot's God.

Suggestion 9. Learn lines 4-6, stanza 19. What does the word prevent mean in this connection? Identify Wallace Point out the antecedent of who, line 1, stanza 21, and of who, line 3, stanza 21.

C. SECOND READING.

THE VOCABULARY OF "THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT"; THE METER; LITERARY CRITICAL COMMENT.

I. THE VOCABULARY OF "THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT."

Note 10. The poem is written partly in the dialect of Ayrhire, Burns's birthplace, and partly in English. The Lowland Scotch dialect of Burns is still the common form of English speech in Scotland and on the Scottish Border, in large districts in the north of England and in northeastern Ireland. This dialect differs from standard English in its rugged articulation (which to unaccustomed ears sounds somewhat harsh and gutteral) in its elisions, in some peculiar vowel sounds, and in its vocabulary, chiefly remarkable for the retention of many old English and middle English words, word roots, and idioms which the more widely spoken language has lost.

This vocabulary is rapidly decaying under modern educational and literary influence. In modern literature, the Scottish speech is best known through the poems of Robert Burns, who used it in all his best and most characteristic work. It has also been used effectively for purposes of local color and with modified vocabulary by Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other writers of fiction dealing with Scottish life.

1. Quoted comments on the dialectic vocabulary of Burns. a. As Burns was the poet of the poor, anxious, cheerful, working humanity, so had he the language of low life. He grew up in a rural district, speaking a patois unintelligible to all but natives, and he has made the Lowland Scotch a Doric dialect of fame. It is the only example in history of a language made classic by the genius of a single man.

b. It was left to Burns to bring the dialect of the Scottish peasantry into high poetry.

c. Burns wrote his best things in a language the door of which was already sealed.

II. THE METER OF THE POEM.

Note 11. The poem is written in the Spenserian stanza of nine lines, with the rhyming scheme a_b-a-b-b-c-b-c-c.

III. CRITICAL COMMENT.

1. As a poet Burns stands in the front rank. His conceptions are all original; his thoughts are new and weighty; his style unborrowed; and he owes no honor to the subjects which his muse selected, for they are ordinary, and such as would have tempted no poet, save himself, to sing about.-Allen Cunningham.

2.

With clearer eyes I saw the worth

Of life among the lowly;

The Bible at the cotter's hearth

Had made my own more holy.

-Whittier.

3. There are few, if any, interiors in our literature which rival the one described in this poem, for truthfulness, and sincere but not exaggerated sentiment.

4. Burns was a student of manners, which he painted with a sure hand, his masterpiece being that reverential reproduction of the family life at Lochlea, "The Cotter's Saturday Night."

5. In mere style Burns is, when writing in Scotch, to be ranked with the great masters.

6. Burns has a style of perfect plainness, relying for effect solely on the weight of that which with entire fidelity it utters.-Matthew Arnold.

7. The prevailing characteristic of Burns's style is absolute sincerity. The manners and prevailing fancies of his countrymen are immortalized. He has endeared the farm house and cottage, patches and poverty. The quiet households of the kingdom have received a sort of apotheosis in "The Cotter's Saturday Night."

8. The special characteristics of Burns's poetry are a total want of affectation; the power of making all subjects interesting; true poetic feeling, humor, and pathos.Carlyle.

9.

For now he haunts his native land
As an immortal youth; his hand
Guides every plough;

He sits beside each ingle-nook,

His voice is in each rushing brook,
Each rustling bough.

-Longfellow.

D. SUPPLEMENTARY WORK.

1.

TEST QUESTIONS: THEME SUBJECTS.

I. TEST QUESTIONS.

State the facts in the life of Burns which have a bearing upon his literary career.

2. Describe the poetry of Burns. Classify his best known poems.

3. What are the chief characteristics of The Cotter's Saturday Night? In what respects is it a great poem?

4. The Cotter's Saturday Night is called an idyl, a pastoral poem, and a narrative poem. Justify each classification.

5. Quote from this outline Critical Comment 3. Describe in detail the interior pictured in this poem.

6. Write a brief account of the dialect employed by Burns in this poem. Quote two paragraphs or stanzas from other Scotch writers and compare the vocabularies used.

7. "All Scotland is in his verse." Explain.

8. Rewrite in standard English stanzas 5, 8, 11, 12. Discuss the result.

9. "The most elevated passages in Burns's poetry are in English." Do you agree with this critic? Prove your position.