The sun behind yon misty isle,
Did sweetly set yestreen;
But not his parting dewy smile
Could match the smile of Jean.
Her bosom swell'd with gentle woe,
Mine strove with tender war.
On Stinshar's banks, while wild-woods grow,
While rivers to the ocean flow,
With love of thee my heart shall glow,
Thou bonnie lass of Barr.
[74] The English pronouncing the name of this river _Stinkar_, induced
the poet Burns to change it to Lugar.
ROBERT TANNAHILL.
Robert Tannahill was born at Paisley on the 3d of June 1774. His father,
James Tannahill, a silk-gauze weaver, espoused Janet Pollock, daughter
of Matthew Pollock, owner of the small property of Boghall, near Beith;
their family consisted of six sons and one daughter, of whom the future
poet was the fourth child. On his mother's side he inherited a poetical
temperament; she was herself endowed with strong natural sagacity, and
her maternal uncle Hugh Brodie of Langcroft, a small landowner in
Lochwinnoch, evidenced poetic powers by composing "A Speech in Verse
upon Husbandry."[75] When a mere youth, Tannahill wrote verses; and
being unable, from a weakness in one of his limbs to join in the active
sports of his school-fellows, he occasionally sought amusement by
composing riddles in rhyme for their solution. As a specimen of these
early compositions, we submit the following, which has been communicated
to us by Mr Matthew Tannahill, the poet's surviving brother.
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