Burns as Spunkie, p.53.

[Anecdotes of Burns Contents]

SPEAKING one day of his own poetry, Burns said, “I have much to answer for: my success in rhyme has produced a shoal of ill-spawned monsters, who imagine, because they make words clink, they are poets. It requires a will-o’-the wisp to pass over the quick-sands and quagmires of the Scottish dialect. I am spunkie – they follow me and sink.”