IDYLS AND LEGENDS

OF INVERBURN

IDYLS AND LEGENDS

OF INVERBURN

BY  ROBERT BUCHANAN

AUTHOR OF “UNDERTONES”

ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER

148 STRAND, LONDON

1865

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LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

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CONTENTS.

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Page             

PREAMBLE          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          1

WILLIE BAIRD. A WINTER IDYL       .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .        11

LORD RONALD’S WIFE           .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .        32

POET ANDREW                         .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .        39

WHITE LILY OF WEARDALE-HEAD. A NIGHT-PIECE     .          .          .          .          .        61

THE ENGLISH HUSWIFE’S GOSSIP              .          .          .          .          .          .          .        72

THE FAËRY FOSTER-MOTHER          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .        92

THE TWO BABES                                  .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .        96

THE GREEN GNOME. A MELODY      .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .       136

HUGH SUTHERLAND’S PANSIES. A FLOWER-PIECE      .          .          .          .          .       140

THE LEGEND OF THE STEPMOTHER                                  .          .          .          .          .       159

THE WIDOW MYSIE. AN IDYL OF LOVE AND WHISKY            .          .          .          .       165

THE MINISTER AND THE ELFIN                                          .          .          .          .          .       180

THE LEGEND OF THE LITTLE FAY. A MELODY                .          .          .          .          .       185

VILLAGE VOICES                                  .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .       196

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[Notes:
‘Idyls and Legends of Inverburn’ was Buchanan’s third book of poetry to be published, although according to his contribution to My First Book, he seems to have disowned the earlier ‘Poems & Love Lyrics’, and refers to the simultaneous composition of ‘Undertones’ and ‘Idyls and Legends of Inverburn’ as “My first serious effort in literature”. ‘Undertones’ was the first to be published:

“The other, Idyls and Legends of Inverburn, was a ruggeder bantling, containing almost the first blank verse poems ever written in Scottish dialect. I selected one of the poems, ‘Willie Baird,’ and showed it to Lewes. He expressed himself delighted, and asked for more. I then showed him the ‘Two Babes.’ ‘Better and better!’ he wrote; ‘publish a volume of such poems and your position is assured.’ More than this, he at once found me a publisher, Mr. George Smith, of Messrs. Smith and Elder, who offered me a good round sum (such it seemed to me then) for the copyright. Eventually, however, after ‘Willie Baird’ had been published in the Cornhill, I withdrew the manuscript from Messrs. Smith and Elder, and transferred it to Mr. Alexander Strahan, who offered me both more liberal terms and more enthusiastic appreciation.”

‘Undertones’ was published in 1863, ‘Idyls and Legends of Inverburn’ in 1865, and the two were combined the following year in the first ‘collected edition’ of Buchanan’s poetry, published by Roberts Brothers of Boston.

Alexander Strahan published a second edition (of 214 pages) in 1866 and this edition was republished in 1882 by Chatto & Windus.

There are some significant changes in the ‘Idyls and Legends of Inverburn’ section of the Chatto & Windus 1884 edition of ‘The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan’. The ‘Preamble’ is extensively reworked and retitled ‘The Lowland Village’, ‘The Legend of the Stepmother’ is retitled ‘The Dead Mother’, and two poems are omitted altogether: ‘The Two Babes’ and ‘The Legend of the Little Fay’. ]