Of the waves as they surge
O’er the barm-swollen ocean!
The sleet he congeals
O’er the moors in their whiteness,
Clean scouring the stars
Till they dazzle with brightness.
The poet, after this introduction, goes on to moralise at great length, drawing his lessons from the seasons and their changes. His poems are eight in number, and altogether constitute but a very small volume.
The titles of the other poems not referred to above are—The Dream, The Hero, and Prayer. An excellent sketch of his life and conversion written by the author himself in good English, has been translated into Gaelic, and is found frequently prefixed to the Hymns. This [account the author] solemnly signs, and prays that this transaction of his signing himself as the Lord’s consecrated servant on earth may be ratified in heaven. Buchanan tells us that he was an anxious hearer at one of the sermons which the distinguished evangelist George Whitefield preached at Cambuslang on the occasion of the latter’s visit to Scotland.
Buchanan, in conception and utterance, shows more than the other Gaelic bards the effects of his acquaintance with English literature. The religious subjects which were the theme of his poetry partially account for this. When in Edinburgh Buchanan became acquainted with several distinguished men in the Scottish capital—among others, the celebrated David Hume, who was much impressed by the culture and character of the Sacred Bard of Rannoch.
