The Poems of John Lapraik

John Lapraik's book of Poems and Songs was published in 1788 by John Wilson of Kilmarnock, two years after his friend Robert Burns had had his first volume of poems published by the same printer to great critical acclaim.

The material is perhaps principally of interest for its content, derived as they are from Lapraik's life in Ayrshire in the 18th Century at a time of rapid change and the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Dedication

The cost of publishing the book was paid by those Subscribers willing to invest their money - in the hope that the book sold well and thus get a return on their investment - and the book begins with a Dedication in verse which seeks to explain why the author does not feel it appropriate to dedicate the book to anyone specifically and, instead, wishes it to be to the "Partial Public" who would buy his book.

He is referring to Robert Burns when he declares that he had no thought of giving the world his

"dull, insipid, thowless rhyme."
Till your kind muse, wi' friendly blast,
First booted up my fame,
And sounded loud thro' a' the wast
My lang-forgotten name.

Preface

There follows a Preface which explains the author's motivation for publishing his work:

..in consequence of misfortunes and disappointments, he was, some years ago, torn from his ordinary way of life, and shut up in Retirement, which he found at first painful and disagreeable. Imagining however that he had a kind of turn for Rhyming, in order to support his solitude, he set himself to compose the following Pieces...

Although he doesn't expressly mention it, the public would be likely to have know that Lapraik had been imprisoned for debt following the collapse of a local Bank a few years earlier and it would have been obvious that the publication was done in the hope that it would be a commercial success and that he might regain some sort of financial stability.

The Contents list provides an index which includes the Dedication, Preface and then a list of the poems and songs contained in the book - all of which have been published on this site.

The Poems and Songs

The entire contents of the book are published on this site - the easiest way to view them is by using the Table of Contents.