SOURCE: "The Satires: Underground Poetry," in Critical Essays on Robert Burns, edited by Donald A. Law, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, pp. 90–105.

In the following essay, Scott details what were considered the scandalous aspects of Burns's satires.

The unanimity of praise for the satires among modern Scottish critics of Burns is remarkable in a literary scene where controversy is more usual than consent. To David Daiches [in his Robert Burns, 1950], 'The Holy Tulzie' is 'brilliant' and 'extraordinarily effective'; 'Holy Willie's Prayer' possesses 'cosmic irony' and 'perfect dramatic appropriateness'; 'The Holy Fair' is at once 'the finest of those [poems] in the Kilmarnock volume which show the full stature of Burns as a poet working in the Scots literary tradition' and a creation with 'revolutionary implications'; 'The Twa Dogs' is 'brisk, sharp-toned … with wit and point'; 'Address to the Deil' is 'effective' in that it 'blows up' the doctrine of original...