The Dominion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1930. THE KEY TO A MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 62, 6 December 1930, Page 8

The Dominion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1930. THE KEY TO A MYSTERY

To English people there has always been something of a mystery about the enthusiasm of the Scot for the poetry of Burns. It has been accepted-with good-humoured indifference, or with cynical amusement, but it has very seldom been The worship, which does not always stop far. “this side exists everywhere the wandering Scot has penetrated and left descendants. It endures to the third and -fourth generation, as New Zealand does not need to be reminded. , , A key to this mystery has been suggested by an English literary critic who confesses to being a Lancastrian himself. The occasion for his thesis is the appearance of a new life of Burns, written in the modern biographical method. That means the author has not herself —for it happens the writer is a woman—indulged in any adulation of the subject. The note is strict realism. The book is concerned more with Burns the man than with Burns the poet, and necessarily therefore enters in some detail into the social conditions of Scotland during the year? of his short life. This gives the critic his opening. The core of his observations is in these words: “The weariness that followed a century of religious strife, the extinction of her Parliament, the loss of all symbols of her loyalty, and the ruthless suppression of the Jacobite risings had all but extinguished the smouldering fires of Scottish patriotism. Under this superficial apathy there still lived the sparks of national self-respect, “and Burns blew them into a. fire of patriotism which was warmth and light and delight from within. % _ If this theory can be accepted, then the poet indeed lighted a candle that has not yet been, nor shows any signs of being, extinguished. He did it too, it may be noted, without deliberately, or perhaps even consciously, preaching Scottish nationalism. But his method was even more effective than the direct admonition if indeed it was thanks to him, as has been suggested, that- Scotland ' did not degenerate into a mere province.” • / Again assuming that the critic is right, the miracle was accomplished by taking the simple things of the countryside, the common life of the people and casting about them the radiance of poetic fire and imagination. The devotion of Burns to the common everyday facts of human existence is akin to that of the Bible and of Pilgrim’s Progress. Sometimes its appeal is purely Scottish, of ten it is universal, as the number of common quotations from his works proves. , Here then is the key to the mystery as offered by one who is not a Scot, but who is obviously a man that looks beneath the surface. Primarily its interest might seem to be to the Scottish people ' and the worshippers of Burns, but not necessarily so. As a first hint of the breadth of its importance, it must be conceded that Scottish patriotism has never been narrow or exclusive. It has left room for a sturdy faith in the British Empire. The rally of the Scots to the standard when war broke in 1914 needs no emphasis. It was universal, spontaneous and was accepted as a matter of course. This may suggest reasonably to young countries where the spirit of nationality is a recent growth, both that it can be developed within and consistently with, devotion to the wider cause of Empire solidarity, and also that he who writes the songs of that country, when he arises, may do more than those who write its laws can do. It is a fair challenge to New Zealand, where the sense of nationality lags, and where the rise of a native literature has been notoriously slow. If, or when, a Burns of the south shall appear . here, these causes which are not unimportant will receive a muchneeded impulse that may have consequences of profound importance. This might be remembered at a time when the Scots of New Zealand are fresh from celebrating St. Andrew’s Day, without being any the worse New Zealanders for it.