S. Clarke.
CCLXIII.
TO MR. THOMSON.
[“Phillis the Fair” endured much at the hands of both Burns and Clarke. The young lady had reason to complain, when the poet volunteered to sing the imaginary love of that fantastic fiddler.]
August, 1793.
Your objection, my dear Sir, to the passages in my song of “Logan Water,” is right in one instance; but it is difficult to mend it: if I can, I will. The other passage you object to does not appear in the same light to me.
I have tried my hand on “Robin Adair,” and, you will probably think, with little success; but it is such a cursed, cramp, out-of-the-way measure, that I despair of doing anything better to it.
While larks with little wing.[229]
So much for namby-pamby. I may, after all, try my hand on it in Scots verse. There I always find myself most at home.