A SCOTS WEAVER POET

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 147, 25 June 1927, Page 21

A SCOTS WEAVER POET

Robert. Tanuahill, the. Paisley poet, ia. the subject of a special aiid unsigned article in the June "N.Z. Scotsman." Tannahill, who was a working weaver, died in 1810, in his 36th year, and so far as is known he died by his own hand. He was the writer of "Jessie, the Flo'er o' Dumblane," and of many other popular songs. ; Although the poet.had to work long hours at his loom, he was well read. He came from a. home which, if poor, had a literary atmosphere, as did very many of tlio kind in Scotland in those days.* The writer, of the article states that in' his descriptions of Nature Tannahill shows a fineness : of perception, a 'sureness of touch, and a correctness of diction not surpaused by any of the great masters. For couthy tenderness and winning artlessness, for the choice and arrangement of words and phrases that sing themselves into, our hearts even before we know the. tunes to which they are set, where can we find his peer? It is because of these qualities that his songs are sung and loved by gentle ana simple—and that, surely, is the best proof of their worth and the highest compliment to their- author's- genius." This year Tannahill >a anniversary—interrupted by the war-^-will be revived in Paisley. Some :!dea of hia lyric gift and his love of Nature will be found in the following quotation, in this excellent article of Tannahill's '' Gloomy Winter's Noo Awa'."

Gloomy winter's.iooawa', .' Saft the wastliri' breezes blaw 'Mang the birks o' Stanley: shaw , The mavis sirij;s fu' cheery O: Sweet the crawflo'er'g early bell Decks Gleniffer's dewy dell, Bloomin' like thy bonnie sel'. My young, my airtless dearie O. Come, my lassie, let us stray Owre Glenkilloch's sunny brae, Blythely spend the gowden day 'Midst joy* thait never weary O!

Incidentally a i»usical composition by John Morrison, of Wollington, called David Munro- (Mnnawatu) March appears in the Juno "Scotsman."