| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
104 LADY NAIRNE AND HER SONGS.
feeling, joined to, and permeated by, the perfect and magic melody: —
Had we never loved sae blindly, Had we never loved sae kindly, Never met and never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted.1
For the second instance, where the melody is predominant over the meaning, and where the poet seemed only to be affected by the desire to frame words that would sing themselves and merely symbolize his thought, there are very many examples in the peasant poetry and folk-song of Scotland, — refrains that have no direct connection with the song, but, like the note of a second flute in a concerto, intensify the effect of the first strain by a kindred, yet diverse accentuation, as
The broom blooms bonnie and says it is fair ;
and as the most perfect specimen that occurs, the refrain to the ballad of Lord Barnard in Jamie-son's collection: —
O, wow for day !
And dear gin it were day !
Gin it were day and I were away,
For I haena long time to stay.
It is only the uneducated poets who have the courage to use language arbitrarily with a purpose
1 It is needless to say that the supreme felicity of these lines has been pointed out by other and more distinguished critics. |
||