Robert Burns – An Introduction

Burns was born on 25 January, 1759. Today his birthday is celebrated all over the world with a Burn’s Supper where the Scottish speciality, haggis, is served and his poems and songs are recited and sung. He died in 1796, only 37 years old. He had a great appetite for life – and women.

The sweetest hours that e’er I spent,
Are spent among the lassies, O.
(from the poem "Green Grow the Rashes O")

He created many poems and songs in both Scots and English helping to preserve the Scots language and showing that it was equally possible to express feelings and convey his message in Scots. He also collected and revised folk songs, but struggled on the edge of poverty for much of his life.

Scots and English are similar but different. Here are some Scots words from Burns' poems. Use "The Online Scots Dictionary" on scots-online.org to find the English equivalent: bonnie, bairn, sleekit, moose, gang, airt, brattle.

Burns was born in Alloway near Ayr, the oldest of seven children in a poor family. He was educated, but not regularly, from the age of six by a teacher who stimulated his interest in literature. In addition, he learned ballads and folk tales from his mother. He started writing poetry in his teens.
Burns trained as a ploughman and farmed together with his brother. Many of his poems deal with the countryside and the ordinary people. One of these is “To a Mouse”, about a farmer who ploughs up a mouse’s nest when turning over his fields before winter. Mice were not popular with farmers because the destroyed their crops, but the farmer in the poem addresses the mouse about the trials of life making the point that the animal has as much right to make a life for himself as people do. Listen to a few stanzas from the poem where Burns, the farmer, talks to the mouse.

During his short lifetime, Burns had relationships with many women. In 1785 he met Jean Armour, who eventually became his wife and bore him nine children. For her he wrote:

Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw
I dearly like the west,
For there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lassie I lo'e best:
(from "Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw")

In addition, throughout his life Burns had affairs with several other women. Some of these liasons resulted in illegitimate children, all of whom he acknowledged. One special relationship was with Agnes McLehose, whom he met in Einburgh. This lasted from 1787 until 1791 when she left to join her estranged husband in the West Indies. He wrote many passionate letters to her addressing her as “Clarinda” and a beautiful farewell poem titled “Ae Fond Kiss” In the last stanza he says:

The first edition of his poems was printed in 1785 in order to raise money to travel to Jamaica where he was offered a job. He hoped to do better there than he had done in farming. However, in the end he decided to go to Edinburgh and was feted by the literati of the time. There he met people who become his patrons and gave him some financial support. Burns also toured the Borders and the Highlands collecting traditional airs (songs). The second edition of his poems came out in 1787.
From 1788 until his death in 1796, he and his family lived in SW Scotland in and near Dumfries where he supported them by working both as a farmer and exciseman (collector of customs and excise payments). He wrote many poems at this time and worked on a collection of Scottish airs, composing songs based on old traditional tunes such as "A Red Red Rose" and "Auld Lang Syne". His death in 1796 was probably due to a rheumatic condition which had affected his heart. He died a pauper, but left behind a legacy of verse which has enriched the world of poetry and song.

Burns was a philosophical poet, a republican and an egalitarian. He was aware of the fight for the rights of the common man, e.g. in the American Revolution, 1776–1783, and the French Revolution, 1789–1799. His poems and songs include the themes of man and nature, equality, patriotism, and love and tenderness, as well as satire on certain aspects of society and Scotland’s cultural heritage.

His egalitarianism has made him a popular poet in Russia, which was the first country to produce a stamp in his honour, on the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956. At the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, "A Man’s a Man for a’ That" was sung. The last stanza indicates Burns’ hopes for the future of mankind.

Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a’ that).
That Sense and Worth o’er a’ the earth
Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s comin’ yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man, the world o’er.
Shall brothers be for a’ that.
(bear the gree = will win the victory)

His patriotic poem "Scots Wha Hae" used to be the unofficial national anthem of Scotland. It is a rousing address to the Scottish army from their king, Robert the Bruce, before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314; the Scots were the victors and won their freedom from the English.

Burns did not approve of the strict self-righteousness of some Presbyterian clergymen in Scotland and the satirical poem "Holy Wullie’s Prayer" reflects this. But perhaps Burns is most famous for his love songs, such as "A Red Red Rose", which is claimed to be Bob Dylan's greatest source of inspiration. Are there any more inspiring lines than these?

There are many other poems about love, lost love and tenderness – "Mary Morrisson", "Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon", "Whistle and I'll Come to Ye, My Lad", etc.

Scottish culture as manifested in the everyday lives of ordinary people occurs in poems such as "A Cottar’s Saturday Night", a description of a cottager coming home from the fields to his family on Saturday evening and looking forward to a day of rest on Sunday. Another such poem is "Tam o' Shanter" by Robert Burns, a tale of a farmer who gets into trouble because of drink and women. The poem ends with a warning to all men to curb their inclinations in those areas. Was Burns thinking of his own life?

Burns may have enjoyed many of the pleasures of life to the full, but if he had not been the kind of person he was, he might never have written the poetry and songs that he did. They represent a cultural heritage that Scots all over the world are so proud of, that they voted him the Greatest Scot.