BRUCE, MICHAEL (1746-1767), Scottish poet, was born at Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire, on March 27, 1746, the son of a weaver, and died at the age of 21 in his native place on July 5, 1767. His parents gave him a good education and he attended four winter sessions at Edinburgh university. In 1766 he wrote his last and finest poem, "Elegy Written in Spring." His reputation has been spread, first through sympathy for his early death and, secondly, through the alleged theft by John Logan (q.v.) of several of his poems. Logan edited in 1770 Poems on Several Occasions, by Michael Bruce, in which the "Ode to the Cuckoo" appeared. In the preface he stated that "to make up a miscellany, some poems written by different authors are in serted." In a collection of his own poems in 1781, Logan printed the "Ode to the Cuckoo" as his own.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Additions to Poems on Several Occasions were made Bibliography.-Additions to Poems on Several Occasions were made by Dr. M'Kelvie in his 1837 edition, with a list of the poems not printed in Logan's selection and those that are lost. See the "Life" in Anderson's British Poets (1795) ; an admirable paper on Bruce in The Mirror (No. 36, 1779), said to be by William Craig, one of the lords of session; The Poetical Works of Michael Bruce; with Life and Writings (1895) , by William Stephen, who, like Dr. A. B. Grosart, The Works of Michael Bruce (1865) , adopts M'Kelvie's view ; and Life of Michael Bruce, Poet of Loch Leven, with Vindication of his Authorship of the "Ode to the Cuckoo" and other Poems, etc. (19o5), by James Mackenzie.