Excerpt from The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Vol. 2 of 2: Arranged in the Order of Their Earliest Publication "And so did our Peasant shew himself us; 'a soul like an AEolian harp, in whose strings the vulgar, as it passed through them, changed itself into articulate!" - Carlyle. Each and all the Poems and Songs that compose the text of the preceding volume underwent the revising care, and were published under the eye of their author. On the other hand, not one of the productions in the volume now laid before the reader, obtained that advantage, - hence the difficulty and increased responsibility of its editorship. Mrs. Maria Riddell, the accomplished and very talented friend of the poet during his latter years, forgetting the unhappy lampoons, which had been produced against her by the Bard under temporary irritation, came generously forward immediately after his death, and published a noble tribute to his memory and his genius. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."