{\b John Logan}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 1748

{\b Date of Death}.: 25 December 1788

{\b Works}.

Edited Poems on Several Occasions by Michael Bruce (1770), Poems  (1781), 
Runnamede  (1783).

{\b Featured Works}.

'Yarrow Stream'.

{\b General Comment}.

John Logan, poet, was the son of a small farmer at Soutra, Midlothian, 
Scotland. He was educated at Musselburgh Grammar School and Edinburgh 
University. In 1770 he edited, at the parents' bequest, the poems of Michael 
Bruce (Poems on Several Occasions ), a fellow student who died of consumption 
at the age of twenty one. In 1773 he became minister of South Leith, 
Edinburgh. He published a book of his own poetry in 1781, Poems, which 
included a version of Bruce's 'Ode to the Cuckoo'; who the author of the 1781 
version is remains a mystery. However, Edmund Burke declared the 1781 version 
the most beautiful lyric in the English language. In addition, Logan's 'The 
Braes of Yarrow' is seen as establishing him as a poet of distinction in his 
own right.

His tragedy, Runnamede , was presented at Edinburgh in 1783 and was also 
accepted for Covent Garden. The church felt it to be too radical politically 
and Logan was consequently removed from his position in South Leith. He spent 
the rest of his life in London working as a journalist and pamphleteer.