No. LIII. MR. THOMSON TO MR. BURNS. MY DEAR SIR, Edinburgh, 10th August, 1794. I OWE you an apology for having so long delayed to acknowledge the favour of your last. I fear it will be as you say, I shall have no more songs from Pleyel 'till France and we are friends; but nevertheless, I am very desirous to be prepared with the poetry, and as the season approaches in which your muse of Coila visits you, I trust I shall as formerly be frequently gratified with the result of your amorous and tender interviews! No. No. LIV. MR. BURNS TO MR. THOMSON. 30th August, 1794. THE last evening as I was straying out, and thinking of, O'er the hills and far away, I spun the following stanza for it; but whether my spinning will deserve to be laid up in store like the precious thread of the silk-worm, or brushed to the devil like the vile manufacture of the spider, I leave, my dear Sir, your usual candid criticism. I was pleased with several lines in it at first; but I own that now, it appears rather a flimsy business. to This is just a hasty sketch, until I see whether it be worth a critique. songs, but as far as I at present recollect, they are mostly the effusions of the jovial sailor, not the wailings of his love-lorn mistress. I must here make one sweet exception-Sweet Annie frae the Sea-beach Now for the song. came. On ON THE SEAS AND FAR AWAY. Tune-" O'ER THE HILLS, &c." How can my poor heart be glad, CHORUS. On the seas and far away, Are ay When in summer's noon I faint, Fate Fate do with me what you may, At the starless midnight hour, When winter rules with boundless power; As the storms the forest tear, And thunders rend the howling air, Listening to the doubling roar, Surging on the rocky shore, Peace thy olive wand extend, Man with brother man to meet, Fill my sailor's welcome sails, To my arms their charge convey, On the seas, I give you leave to abuse this song, but do it in the spirit of Christian meekness. No. No. LV. MR. THOMSON TO MR. BURNS. Edinburgh, 16th Sept. 1794. MY DEAR SIR, YOU have anticipated my opinion of, On the seas and far away; I do not think it one of your very happy productions, though it certainly contains stanzas that are worthy of all acceptation. The second is the least to my liking, particularly "Bullets spare my only joy." Confound the bullets. It might perhaps be objected to the third verse, “At the starless midnight hour," that it has too much grandeur of imagery, and that greater simplicity of thought would have better suited the character of a sailor's sweetheart. The tune it must be remembered is of the brisk cheerful kind. Upon the whole therefore, in my humble opinion, the song would be better adapted to the tune, if it consisted only of the first and last verses, with the chorusses. No. |