SCOTTISH POETRY.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17169, 3 August 1927, Page 5

SCOTTISH POETRY.

PHASES EXPLAINED. SOKE LITERARY PICTURISATIONS. CIIARM OF INTERPRETATIONS. A bright personality and a delivery in a naturally humorous style were attributes possessed to a marked degree by Rev. James Harr, -M.R. lor Motherwell, when lie gave a. large audience of several hundred a lilerary treat last night with an instructive discourse on the poetry and song of Scotland. JI is character portrayals were admirable and conveyed in a true sense all that was remarkable in Scottish verse. XYith a clever delineation of the typical gestures of mother leftching her child to walk, he opened his address by dealing wilh the works of Alexander Anderson, Ihc “surfaceman” poet, whose chief contributions were based on childhood and youth. Mr Barr recited the lines of the poet s most famous poem, interpreting the words in the manner already mentioned.

Anderson, he stated, was a surfaceman who by dint of bard study acquired a knowledge of Italian and German that be might read Danle and Scylla in the. original type. Not far behind Anderson was James Italian - tync, horn in Edinburgh, at first a painter by trade, but latterly a glassslaincr, who worked on the House of Lords. “Castles in the Air" was one of his best-known works, and picluriscd a boy gazing into a fire, while in the depth of his imagination he built dream castles in Ihc air. Another Scottish poet of eminence was George James Laurie, horn in 1797, whose father and grandfather, both clergymen, were before him men of literary 'taste, while lie himself was a parish clergyman —so that after all there were some men of genius in the ministry, adroitly added the speaker. John Stuart Rlarkic, horn in 1809 at Glasgow, resigned the ministry to study law, but did not tarry long at that either and finished by taking the professorship of Greek at Edinburgh University. He was noted for his poems, humour and eccentricity. Passing on, Mr Harr made reference to Ihc different- phases of Scottish poetry and song, and recited extensively to illustrate the nature of the works. An outstanding contribution was that of Sir Charles Murray, whose greatest literary poem was a charming one. It dealt with a herd boy who found nothing to interest him in life, and could not he got out of bed in the morning—nothing so very peculiar—until be made a whistle for himself. After that lie was always first abroad in the sunny morning, piping to every animal about Hie farm. Tragedy descended, however, when his whistle was confiscated by the schoolmistress, and thereafter he returned to his old habits.

The writings of Ihc immortal hard, Robert Burns, whose noems threw a glamour round the homo, were touched upon briefly by the speaker, who quoted the cottage scene in which the parent, assumed sacerdotal duties and administered Rip- reading to the

children regularly at the. end of each week. Mr Barr said the next section of his lecture would probably be dreary to the voting people, but he begged their attention to the most barren tract, that lie was going to traverse. The uninteresting references dealt with the hyperboles of love in the Scottish song and poetry—that was, in effect, the literary extravagances and colourful paintings the young mind indulged in under the emotionalism of Jove, as portrayed by Bobbie Burns in Ihi' ‘•Red, Bed Rose.” The poems in which was reflected the constancy fidelity or fickleness of love were dealt with, though the speaker reminded the listeners that he was not, speaking of real life, but of the song and poetry of Scotland, lie found it necessary to reiterate that more than once and was most careful in stressing his point. The democracy and the humour of Jove as represented in Scottish poems was explained in turn, and finally the tragic note, in which pathos introduced into a love theme rose io sublime resignation.

lii September, 1513, the flowers of Scottish chivalry lay strewn on the field of Flodden, and that had been the subject of some line poems, while the patriotic sentiment was expressed in the poems which immortalised the wandering of I.lm Stuarts. “Rule Britannia ” and “ Ye Mariners of England ” were sea verses produced by Scotsmen.

This national spirit perhaps found best expression in flic sixth canto of Sir Waller Scott's “Bay or the Last .Minstrel,” the opening lines of which were:

“ Breaths there the man with soul so dead.

Who never lo hirnsclf hath said, This is my own, my native land.” Appreciation of the fine address was recorded in a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Barr on the motion of Mr W. Lee Marlin. Mr J. R. Row (Mayor) occupied the chair.