Here they are:--
Where are the joys I have met in the morning?
Where are the joys I have met in the morning?
Robert Burns
]
_September, 1793. _
"Who shall decide when doctors disagree? " My ode pleases me so much
that I cannot alter it. Your proposed alterations would, in my
opinion, make it tame. I am exceedingly obliged to you for putting me
on reconsidering it, as I think I have much improved it. Instead of
"sodger! hero! " I will have it "Caledonian, on wi' me! "
I have scrutinized it over and over; and to the world, some way or
other, it shall go as it is. At the same time it will not in the least
hurt me, should you leave it out altogether, and adhere to your first
intention of adopting Logan's verses.
I have finished my song to "Saw ye my father? " and in English, as you
will see. That there is a syllable too much for the expression of the
air, is true; but, allow me to say, that the mere dividing of a dotted
crotchet into a crotchet and a quaver, is not a great matter: however,
in that I have no pretensions to cope in judgment with you. Of the
poetry I speak with confidence; but the music is a business where I hint
my ideas with the utmost diffidence.
The old verses have merit, though unequal, and are popular: my advice
is to set the air to the old words, and let mine follow as English
verses.
Here they are:--
Where are the joys I have met in the morning? [249]
Adieu, my dear Sir! the post goes, so I shall defer some other remarks
until more leisure.
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 249: Song CCXI. ]
* * * * *
CCLXXVI.
TO MR. THOMSON.
[For "Fy! let us a' to the bridal," and "Fy! gie me my coggie, Sirs,"
and "There's nae luck about the house," Burns puts in a word of
praise, from a feeling that Thomson's taste would induce him to
exclude the first--one of our most original songs--from his
collection. ]
_September, 1793. _
I have been turning over some volumes of songs, to find verses whose
measures would suit the airs for which you have allotted me to find
English songs.
For "Muirland Willie," you have, in Ramsay's Tea-Table, an excellent
song beginning, "Ah, why those tears in Nelly's eyes? " As for "The
Collier's Dochter," take the following old bacchanal:--
"Deluded swain, the pleasure, &c.
_September, 1793. _
"Who shall decide when doctors disagree? " My ode pleases me so much
that I cannot alter it. Your proposed alterations would, in my
opinion, make it tame. I am exceedingly obliged to you for putting me
on reconsidering it, as I think I have much improved it. Instead of
"sodger! hero! " I will have it "Caledonian, on wi' me! "
I have scrutinized it over and over; and to the world, some way or
other, it shall go as it is. At the same time it will not in the least
hurt me, should you leave it out altogether, and adhere to your first
intention of adopting Logan's verses.
I have finished my song to "Saw ye my father? " and in English, as you
will see. That there is a syllable too much for the expression of the
air, is true; but, allow me to say, that the mere dividing of a dotted
crotchet into a crotchet and a quaver, is not a great matter: however,
in that I have no pretensions to cope in judgment with you. Of the
poetry I speak with confidence; but the music is a business where I hint
my ideas with the utmost diffidence.
The old verses have merit, though unequal, and are popular: my advice
is to set the air to the old words, and let mine follow as English
verses.
Here they are:--
Where are the joys I have met in the morning? [249]
Adieu, my dear Sir! the post goes, so I shall defer some other remarks
until more leisure.
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 249: Song CCXI. ]
* * * * *
CCLXXVI.
TO MR. THOMSON.
[For "Fy! let us a' to the bridal," and "Fy! gie me my coggie, Sirs,"
and "There's nae luck about the house," Burns puts in a word of
praise, from a feeling that Thomson's taste would induce him to
exclude the first--one of our most original songs--from his
collection. ]
_September, 1793. _
I have been turning over some volumes of songs, to find verses whose
measures would suit the airs for which you have allotted me to find
English songs.
For "Muirland Willie," you have, in Ramsay's Tea-Table, an excellent
song beginning, "Ah, why those tears in Nelly's eyes? " As for "The
Collier's Dochter," take the following old bacchanal:--
"Deluded swain, the pleasure, &c.
