THIS WEEK'S BOOKS
THERE are fashions in literature, and it seems that of our great lyrical poets few have been so little considered recently as Robert Burns. Editions come out from time to time, but it is comparatively rarely that we see critical articles about him. It may be that the habit of quick and lazy reading has made people neglect him, for certainly there is the great initial difficulty that he wrote in a semi-foreign language. There was a little while ago Sir James Wilson's edition, which included translations of some of the poeme, but that was probably going too far. The ordinary reader will be best satisfied with the selection, Songs from Rohm Burns, made by Mr. A. E. Coppard and published by the Golden Cockerel Press. 'Here, in small type in the margins, English equivalents are given for all words ,which demand more than a practised ear for their interpretation. The book is beautifully and clearly printed, with wood-engravings by Miss Mabel M. Annesley.
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