Scotland/Scots > Life of Robert Burns

LIFE OF
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ination—where the lights and shades in character
were intended. I was pretty confident my poems
would meet with some applause ; hut at the worst,
the roar of the Atlantic would deafen the voice of
censure, and the novelty of West Indian scenes
make me forget neglect. I threw off six hundred
copies, for which I got subscriptions for about
three hundred and fifty. *—My vanity was highly
gratified by the reception I met with from the
public ; and besides, I pocketed, all expenses de¬
ducted, nearly twenty pounds. This sum came
very seasonably, as I was thinking of indenting
myself, for want of money to procure my passage.
As soon as I was master of nine guineas, the price
of wafting me to the torrid zone, I took a steerage
passage in the first ship that was to sail from the
Clyde; for
‘ Hungry ruin had me in the wind.*
“ I had been for some days skulking from co¬
vert to covert, under all the terrors of a jail; as
some ill-advised people had uncoupled the merci¬
less pack of the law at my heels. I had taken
the last farewell of my few friends; my chest was
on the way to Greenock ; I had composed the last
song I should ever measure in Caledonia, The
gloomy night is gathering fast, when a letter from
Dr Blacklock to a friend of mine, overthrew all
my schemes, by opening new prospects to my
poetic ambition.”
To the above rapid narrative of the poet, wc
may annex a few details, gathered from his various
biographers and from his own letters.
* Gilbert Burns mentions, that a single individual, Mr
William Parker, merchant in Kilmarnock, subscribed for
85 copies.