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CHAPTER X
RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST
In attempting a critical estimate of the value of
Ramsay's works, for the purpose of analysis it will be
most convenient to consider the great body of his
writings under certain classified headings — (i) Ramsay
as a Pastoral Poet and an Elegist; (2) Ramsay as a
Satirist and a Song-writer; (3) Ramsay's Miscellaneous
Works.
In the chapter on The Gentle Shepherd^ we noted the
distinctive constituents of pastoral poetry, as currently
defined, and also wherein Ramsay's principles, as ex-
emplified in practice, differ from those of other writers
of pastoral. To furnish examples illustrative of our
contention is now all that remains to be done. Early
in his poetical career, as soon, in fact, as he had
completed his first tentative efforts, Ramsay seems to
have become conscious, with that rare gift of prevision
always distinguishing him, that his strength lay in a
picturesque yet truthful delineation of rural life. His
earliest pieces, although termed elegies, exhibit, rather,
many of the characteristics of pastorals, in the broad
humour and in the graphic and vivid colouring where-
with he depicts the scenes at Maggy Johnston's tavern
at Morningside, or the incidents in the life of Luckie