Wouldst thou, to own all his pelf,
All life’s purer joys forego?
Truest wealth is doing good—
Doctrine strange to him, poor man!
If we can’t do all we would,
Let us do the best we can.
One of the best criticisms on MacColl’s poetry comes from the pen of Hugh Miller: “There is more of fancy than of imagination in the poetry of MacColl, and more of thought and imagery than of feeling. In point, glitter, polish, he is the Moore of Highland song. Comparison and ideality are the leading features of his mind. Some of the pieces in this volume are sparkling tissues of comparison from beginning to end.”
JAMES MUNRO.
A little volume, Am Filldh, mostly written by James Munro (1840), author of the “Gaelic Grammar,” contains a great deal of first-class poetry. In the composition of small pieces of the sentimental kind, Munro is scarcely inferior to Livingston in freshness and condensation, and is MacColl’s equal. We have in the “Filidh” several pieces by other hands, as well as excellent translations from the English. Munro was a man of thorough culture, and profoundly acquainted with the extent and idioms of the Gaelic language. Of all this there is undoubted evidence in his poetry. Here is a rendering of one of Munro’s songs, which is attached to a very fine air:—
Dark winter is going;