ON Robert Burns's birthday, we return to perhaps that most engaging of all his numerous talents, that for writing love songs.

Tempting though the great anthem for doomed lovers, Ae Fond Kiss, or the hyperbolic pledges of O My Luve's Like a Red, Red, Rose are, here is the homely and touching tribute to his wife.

I LOVE MY JEAN

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,

I dearly like the West;

For there the bonnie Lassie lives,

The Lassie I lo'e best:

There's wild-woods grow, and rivers row,

And mony a hill between;

But day and night my fancy's

flight

Is ever wi' my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,

I see her sweet and fair;

I hear her in the tunefu' birds,

I hear her charm the air:

There's not a bony flower,

that springs

By fountain, shaw, or green;

There's not a bony bird that

sings

But minds me o' my Jean.