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

ALLAN RAMSAY 149
To a soup^on of diffuseness the poet must, however,
plead guilty— guilty, moreover, because of the invincible
temptation to pad out a line now and then ' for crambo's
sake ' when the ideas ran short. Ramsay possessed all
the qualities constituting a song -writer of great and
varied genius. His work exhibits ease and elasticity
of rhythm, liquid smoothness of assonance, sympathetic
beauty of thought, with subtle skill in wedding sense
to sound. Though his verse lacked the dainty finish
of Herrick and Waller, the brilliant facet-like sparkle of
Carew, Suckhng, and Lovelace, the tender grace of
Sedley, and the half- cynical, half- regretful, but wholly
piquant epicureanism, of Rochester and Denham, yet
Ramsay had a charm all his own. Witness the ' Lass
o' Patie's Mill'; is it not entirely sui generis!
'The lass o' Patie's Mill,
So bonny, blythe, and gay,
In spite of all my skill,
She stole my heart away.
When tedding of the hay,
Bareheaded on the green,
Love midst her locks did play,
And wantoned in her een.
Her arms, white, round, and smooth,
Breasts rising in their dawn,
To age it would give youth
To press 'em with his hand.
Thro' all my spirits ran
An ecstasy of bliss
When I such sweetness fan'
Wrapt in a balmy kiss.
Without the help of art.
Like flowers that grace the wild,
She did her sweets impart
Whene'er she spoke or smil'd.