BIB_ID
293610
Accession number
MA 47.13
Creator
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796.
Display Date
[ca. 1793 June 25].
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1906.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 25.5 cm
Notes
"O were my Love yon Lilack fair" first line: O were my Love yon Lilack fair.
"Song -- Tune Logan Water" differing in the fifth line of the fourth stanza, but otherwise without edits and as published. First two stanzas of "O were my Love yon Lilack fair" with a single edit (giving a variant word choice) in the fourth line of the second stanza, but otherwise as published. See notes in Kinsley.
"Song -- Tune Logan Water" first line: O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide.
Dated in Ferguson.
Part of a large collection of letters from Robert Burns to George Thomson. Items are described individually; see collection record (MA 47 and MA 50) for more information.
With notes in Thomson's hand.
Witherspoon's collection here referenced is David Herd's The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs (Martin & Wotherspoon, 1769).
"Song -- Tune Logan Water" differing in the fifth line of the fourth stanza, but otherwise without edits and as published. First two stanzas of "O were my Love yon Lilack fair" with a single edit (giving a variant word choice) in the fourth line of the second stanza, but otherwise as published. See notes in Kinsley.
"Song -- Tune Logan Water" first line: O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide.
Dated in Ferguson.
Part of a large collection of letters from Robert Burns to George Thomson. Items are described individually; see collection record (MA 47 and MA 50) for more information.
With notes in Thomson's hand.
Witherspoon's collection here referenced is David Herd's The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs (Martin & Wotherspoon, 1769).
Summary
Inquiring whether Thomson has ever felt his "bosom ready to burst with indignation, on reading of, or seeing, how these mighty villains who divide kingdom against kingdom, desolate provinces & lay Nations to was out of the wantonness of Ambition, or often from still mere ignoble passions?" Noting that in a "mood of this kind" he was reminded of the "air of Logan water," discussing it, and giving the verses to "Song -- Tune Logan Water." Giving two stanzas from Witherspoon's collection of Scots songs (beginning "O gin my love were yon red rose"), and praising the fragment. Mentioning that "after balancing myself for a musing five minutes, on the hind-legs of my elbow-chair, I produced the following," and giving the first two stanzas of "O were my Love yon Lilack fair," admitting that the verses are "far inferior to the foregoing." Mentioning, however, that should it be included in Thomson's collection, it "might be first in place," noting that "every Poet, who knows any thing of his trade, will husband his best thoughts for a concluding stroke."
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