SOURCE: "Point of View in Some Poems of Burns," in Scottish Literary Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1, May, 1986, pp. 5–20.

In this essay, MacLachlan examines Burns's varying role as narrator in the context of his literary-historical position.

Sampson outlines Burns's role in the revival of poetry in the Scots dialect:

[Burns's use of Scots was] initially regarded as an unfortunate result of his origins. After his death, however, commentators began to suggest that his version of the vernacular 'hardly ever transgressed the propriety of English grammar'. This apologetic tone gradually became more assertive. James Currie, Burns's first editor, pointed out that the language of the poetry had not prevented its general circulation in England. Indeed there were over a hundred separate printings of Burns's poetry in England between 1787 and 1835. Scots vernacular came to be regarded as an aspect of Burns's authenticity, and dislike of it was designated 'accidental, not natural'. Finally...