Page:The American fugitive in Europe.djvu/261

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
PLACES AND PEOPLE ABROAD.
253

In every region where the English language is known the songs of Burns give rapture; and from every land, and from climes the most remote, comes the praise of Burns as a poet. In song-writing he, surpassed Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron; for in that department he was above "all Greek, above all Roman fame;" a more than Simonides in pathos, as in his "Highland Mary;" a more than Tyrtasus in fire, as in his "Scots wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled" and a softer than Sappho in love, as in his—

"Had we never loved so kindly,
Had we never loved so blindly,
Never met or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted."

22