SOURCE: "The Christis Kirk Tradition: Its Evolution in Scots Poetry to Burns, Part IV," in Studies in Scottish Literature, Vol. II, No. 4, April, 1965, pp. 234-50.

In the following excerpt, MacLaine analyzes Burns's use of the Christis Kirk genre, which he describes as a "distinctively Scottish genre … [which well demonstrates [Burns's] ability to make distinguished poetry out of the most ordinary stuff of life."]

It would seem almost inevitable that Burns, ardent student of Scots poetry that he was, would sooner or later try his hand at the Christis Kirk genre. As a matter of fact, he produced six substantial poems more or less closely related to the genre, a group of poems which, taken together, represent the last brilliant flowering and culmination of the Christis Kirk tradition. These poems were all composed in the years 1785 and 1786, the period of Burns's greatest creativity, as follows: "A Mauchline Wedding" (August...