Alexander Dick

“ To ride in high career,
Some callants met, a merry crew,
Yet each a decent chiel—
Though on that night a’ seem’d possessed
O’ something o’ the deil.
Their runts clean through and through were bored
And stuffed with raivelins fou,
And like a chimley when on fire
Each could the reek out spue:
And thus convened they council held,
Wi’ handsel whar they’d gang;
A’ being settled and now dark,
They set off in a bang. ”

“ A poem may be very well suited for recitation at a public festival, and possess very slight claims to any literary merit, while another indefinitely superior might not in such circumstances be suitable for recitation at all. ”

“ But it is very evident that all poems which might be judged unsuitable for such recitation, would necessarily be excluded from competition, whatever might be their “literary merits,” and the successful production could only be that which among the “suitable” was regarded as possessing the greatest literary excellence. ”