Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

142 FAMOUS SCOTS
Hogarthian nature. In Chrisfs Kirk on the Green _
we have stereotyped to all time a picture of manners
unsurpassed for vigour and accuracy of detail, to which
antiquarians have gone, and will go, for information that
is furnished in no other quarter.
In his elegies pure and simple, namely, those divested
of any humorous element, Ramsay has done good work
but it is not by any means on a par with what is expected
from the poet who could write The Gentle Shepherd. A
painter of low life in its aspects both humorous and
farcical was Ramsay's distinctive metier. Pity it was
his vanity and ambition ever induced him to turn aside
from the path wherein he was supreme. His 'Ode to
the Memory of Lady Mary Anstruther,' that to 'the
Memory of Lady Garlies,' the one to Sir John
Clerk on the death of his son James Clerk, and the
'Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes of Newhall,' are
his best elegies. The versification is correct, the ideas
expressed are sympathetically tender, poetic propriety and
the modesty of nature are not infringed by any exaggerated
expressions of grief, but the glow of genius is lacking,
and the subtle union of sentiment and expression that
are so prominent features in his greater poem.
His two finest efforts as an elegist were his Ode to
the Memory of Mrs. Forbes^ beginning
—
* Ah, life ! thou short uncertain blaze,
Scarce worthy to be wished or loved,
Why by strict death so many ways,
So soon, the sweetest are removed !
If outward charms and temper sweet,
The cheerful smile, the thought sublime,
Could have preserved, she ne'er had met
A change till death had sunk with time ;
'
;