Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) is
the best known of the poets who have written in
Lowland Scots. Burns also collected folk songs
from across Scotland, often times revising or
adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne
is often sung at Hogmanay. Other poems and songs
of Burns that remain well known today across the
world include A Red, Red Rose, To a Louse, and To
a Mouse.

Biography

He was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland, the
son of William Burnes or Burns, a small farmer,
and a man of considerable force of character and
self-culture. His youth was passed in poverty,
hardship, and a degree of severe manual labour
which left its traces in a premature stoop and
weakened constitution. He had little regular
schooling, and got much of what education he had
from his father, who taught his children reading,
writing, arithmetic, geography, and history, and
also wrote for them \"A Manual of Christian
Belief.\" With all his ability and character,
however, the elder Burns was consistently
unfortunate, and migrated with his large family
from farm to farm without ever being able to
improve his circumstances. In 1781 Robert went to
Irvine to become a flax-dresser, but, as the
result of a New Year carousal of the workmen,
including himself, the shop took fire and was
burned to the ground. This venture accordingly
came to an end. In 1783 he started composing
poetry in a traditional style using the Ayrshire
dialect of Lowland Scots. In 1784 the father died,
and Burns with his brother Gilbert made an
ineffectual struggle to keep on the farm; failing
in which they removed to Mossgiel, where they
maintained an uphill fight for 4 years. Meanwhile,
his love affair with Jean Armour had passed
through its first stage, and the troubles in
connection therewith, combined with the want of
success in farming, led him to think of going to
Jamaica as bookkeeper on a plantation. From this
he was dissuaded by a letter from Thomas
Blacklock, and at the suggestion of his brother
published his poems in the volume, Poems, Chiefly
in the Scottish dialect in June 1786. This edition
was brought out by a local printer in Kilmarnock
and contained much of his best work, including
\"The Twa Dogs,\" \"The Address to the Deil,\"
\"Hallowe\'en,\" \"The Cottar\'s Saturday Night,\"
\"The Mouse,\" \"The Daisy,\" etc., many of which
had been written at Mossgiel. Copies of this
edition are now extremely scarce, and as much as
£550 has been paid for one. The success of the
work was immediate, the poet\'s name rang over all
Scotland, and he was induced to go to Edinburgh to
superintend the issue of a new edition. There he
was received as an equal by the brilliant circle
of men of letters which the city then
boasted—Dugald Stewart, Robertson, Blair, etc.,
and was a guest at aristocratic tables, where he
bore himself with unaffected dignity. Here also
Scott, then a boy of 15, saw him and describes him
as of \"manners rustic, not clownish. His
countenance ... more massive than it looks in any
of the portraits ... a strong expression of
shrewdness in his lineaments; the eye alone
indicated the poetical character and temperament.
It was large, and of a dark cast, and literally
glowed when he spoke with feeling or interest.\"
The results of this visit outside of its immediate
and practical object, included some life-long
friendships, among which were those with Lord
Glencairn and Mrs. Dunlop. The new ed. brought him
£400. About this time the episode of Highland Mary
occurred. On his return to Ayrshire he renewed his
relations with Jean Armour, whom he ultimately
married, took the farm of Ellisland near Dumfries,
having meanwhile taken lessons in the duties of an
exciseman, as a line to fall back upon should
farming again prove unsuccessful. At Ellisland his
society was cultivated by the local gentry. And
this, together with literature and his duties in
the Customs and Excise, to which he had been
appointed in 1789, proved too much of a
distraction to admit of success on the farm, which
in 1791 he gave up.

Meanwhile he was writing at his best, and in 1790
had produced Tam o\' Shanter. About this time he
was offered and declined an appointment in London
on the staff of the Star newspaper, and refused to
become a candidate for a newly-created Chair of
Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh,
although influential friends offered to support
his claims. After giving up his farm he removed to
Dumfries. It was at this time that, being
requested to furnish words for The Melodies of
Scotland, he responded by contributing over 100
songs, on which perhaps his claim to immortality
chiefly rests, and which placed him in the front
rank of lyric poets. His worldly prospects were
now perhaps better than they had ever been; but he
was entering upon the last and darkest period of
his career. He had become soured, and moreover had
alienated many of his best friends by too freely
expressing sympathy with the French Revolution,
and the then unpopular advocates of reform at
home. His health began to give way; he became
prematurely old, and fell into fits of
despondency; and the habits of intemperance, to
which he had always been more or less addicted,
grew upon him. He died on July 21, 1796. Within a
short time of his death, money started pouring in
from all over Scotland to support his widow and
children.

His memory is celebrated by Burns clubs across the
world; his birthday is an unofficial \"National
Day\" for Scots and those with Scottish ancestry,
celebrated with Burns suppers.

Burns\' 1787 epistle to Mrs Scott, Gudewife of
Wanchope House, Roxburgh, is a rare example of the
rhyming of the word purple – it is a common myth
that there is no rhyme.

    I\'d be mair vauntie o\' my hap,
    Douce hingin\' owre my curple,
    Than ony ermine ever lap,
    Or proud imperial purple.


Burns' Works and Influence

Burns\' direct influences in the use of Scots in
poetry were Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) and Robert
Fergusson. Burns\' poetry also drew upon a
substantial familiarity and knowledge of
Classical, Biblical, and English literature, as
well as the Scottish Makar tradition. Burns was
skilled in writing not only in Scots but also in
English. Some of his works, such as Love and
Liberty (also known as The Jolly Beggars), are
written in both Scots and English for various
effects.

Burns\' themes included republicanism (he lived
during the French Revolutionary period), Scottish
patriotism, anticlericalism, class inequalities,
gender roles, commentary on the Scottish Kirk of
his time, Scottish cultural identity, poverty,
sexuality, and the beneficial aspects of popular
socialization (carousing, Scotch whisky, folk
songs, and so forth). Burns\' views on these
themes in many ways parallel those of William
Blake, but it is believed that, although
contemporaries, they were both unaware of the
other. Unlike Blake, Burns\' works tend to be less
overtly mystical in tone and style.

Burns is generally classified as a proto-Romantic
poet, and he influenced Wordsworth, Coleridge, and
Shelley greatly. The Edinburgh literati worked to
sentimentalize Burns during his life and after his
death, dismissing his education by calling him a
\"heaven-taught ploughman.\" Burns would influence
later Scottish writers, especially Hugh MacDiarmid
who fought to dismantle the sentimental Burns cult
that had dominated Scottish literature in
MacDiarmid\'s opinion.

Burns also worked to collect and preserve Scottish
folk songs, sometimes revising, expanding, and
adapting them. One of the better known of these
collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia (the
title is not Burns\'), a collection of bawdy
lyrics that were popular in the music halls of
Scotland as late as the 20th century. Many of
Burns\' most famous poems are songs with the music
based upon older traditional songs. For example,
Auld Lang Syne is set to the traditional tune Can
Ye Labour Lea while A Red, Red Rose is set to the
tune of Major Graham.

The genius of Burns is marked by spontaneity,
directness, and sincerity, and his variety is
marvellous, ranging from the tender intensity of
some of his lyrics through the rollicking humour
and blazing wit of Tam o\' Shanter to the
blistering satire of Holy Willie\'s Prayer and The
Holy Fair. His life is a tragedy, and his
character full of flaws. But he fought at
tremendous odds, and as Carlyle in his great Essay
says, \"Granted the ship comes into harbour with
shrouds and tackle damaged, the pilot is
blameworthy ... but to know how blameworthy, tell
us first whether his voyage has been round the
Globe or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of Dogs.\"

See Cutty-sark for the popularity of the phrase
\"Weel done, Cutty-sark\", a line from \"Tam O\'
Shanter\".


References

    * This article incorporates text from: Cousin,
John William (1910). A Short Biographical
Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M.
Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
    * Robert Burns, The Canongate Burns: The
Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, ed.
Andrew Noble and Patrick Scott Hogg (2001;
Edinburgh: Canongate, 2003). ISBN 1-84195-380-6
v