Robert Burns - Factsheet
| Published: 30th December 2007 19:54 |
Robert Burns - Factsheet
A passionate, inspiring, forward thinking pioneer of his generation, Robert Burns, or as he is more commonly know, Burns, is regarded as the national poet of Scotland. This factsheet contains more information about his life and works, the places you can visit to find out more about him and the contemporary Scottish festivals that continue to this day to celebrate the spirit of Burns.
Places to Visit
Burns travelled around Scotland, gaining inspiration for many of his poems and songs. You too can travel around Scotland and follow in his footsteps, learning more about the man himself and more about Scotland's rich and diverse heritage.
These are just some of the areas throughout Scotland, which we hope will provide you with the inspiration to take a short break in Scotland. The Home of Burns.
- Ayr
Ayr and in particular Alloway, is one of the most meaningful areas in Burns' life as this is where he was born and spent much of his early days. In celebration of Burns, the town or Ayr host's an annual festival in honour is his life. The burns an' a' that! Festival, showcases the life and works of Robert Burns in a modern contemporary way (and as many would agree - just the way he would have liked it!)
Now entering into it's 6th year, the festival has played host to some of Scotland and indeed the worlds hottest talent. From home grown talent, such as Deacon Blue, Mylo and the Proclaimers to internationally renowned acts such as Patti Smith and Lou Reed, the festival has something to suit everyone's taste. The week long celebration of the life and works of the Burns truly is the best way to experience Scotland's traditional and contemporary cultural heritage.
This year's festival is already shaping up to be one of the best so far. So if you're interested to see how the Scots celebrate the life of our national bard in the 21st century, then why not attend some of the gigs, events and activities taking place at the burns an' a' that! Festival this May.
Visit www.burnsfestival.com for more information.
Burns Heritage Park, Alloway Ayrshire
Born in the family cottage in Alloway, Ayr, Burns spent much of his childhood years in this area. The cottage still stands to this day, now forming the heart of the Burns National Heritage Park. Now fully restored to its original state a visit to Burns Cottage is a must see for all Burns enthusiasts!
The heritage park also has a museum, where you could easily spend hours perusing the hundreds of artefacts, personal items belonging to Burns and original manuscripts, including one of "Auld Lang Syne". A visit to the Tam O'Shanter experience, where Burns' famous tale is brought to life is also recommended. As too is a walk over the Brig O'Doon, the climax in his famous poem Tam O'Shanter.
www.burnsheritagepark.com
- Kilmarnock
The poets first ever work "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" (later know as the "Kilmarnock Edition") was published in Kilmarnock in 1786, by John Wilson it was so popular that it sold out within one month of going to print.
Dean Castle in Kilmarnock, home to the international Burns Federation, has a number of important Burns artefacts, although not all on display, there are over 1500 manuscripts, personal relics paints and prints house at Dean Castle. For the more quirky Burnsian you could even catch a glimpse of and original pair of Jean Armours shoes!
Dean Castle has a significant country park, which is open to the public and its also worth a look around their visitor centre.
The Dick Institute is another area of Kilmarnock which has a good collection of burns memorabilia. Many of the pieces from The McKie Burns Collection (one of Burns first printers - although not the first), are on display here in the main gallery. The Dick Institute has two art galleries and three museum galleries, so after you've finished perusing the Burns stock why not prolong your stay and view some of the other pieces of art on display.
- Mauchline
Burns moved to Mauchline after the death of his father, and it was here he met and married his wife, Jean Armour. Burns also farmed in Mauchline and lived there for a number of years, making it a significant area of importance in his life.
Follow in his footsteps by taking a trip to the house where he and his wife Jean lived. The house is now a museum, known as "Burns House Museum" and visitors can see the house as it would have been when Burns lived there as well as being able to view a collection of artefacts which once belonging to the poet.
Other attractions in Mauchline include:
- Mossgeil Farm, where he once lived,
- The National Burns Memorial Tower,
- And of course the statue of Burns' wife Jean Armour.
And when you've travelled around enough to have worked up an appetite why not grab a bite to eat and a cup of tea at Poosie Nansie's Inn, the pub which is thought to have inspired Burns to write the poem Jolly Beggars.
- Edinburgh
Burns moved to Edinburgh in 1786, to start a new life after he and Jean (Armour) parted company. Burns believed that Jean had abandoned him, when indeed she had been forced to leave him by her father, who strongly disapproved of their relationship.
Then following the success of his "Kilmarnock Edition" of poems, Burns furthered his literally ambitions and arranged the publication of a second edition of his poems.
There are tributes to Burns throughout the capital, taking the form of monuments, statues and of course visitor attractions. You can even go to bars and restaurants in the capital, which pay tribute to Burns, including the luxurious Scotsman Hotel, which is an ideal retreat after a busy day pounding the streets following in the footsteps of the man himself.
Edinburgh is thought to have some of the most extensive collections of work by Burns so why not take a trip to see some of it.
Places with particular relevance are:
- The National Library of Scotland
- The Writers Museum
- The University of Edinburgh Library (you can even see the original copy of his Edinburgh Edition of Poems)
The National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland are also key place to visit, not only do they have excellent Burns collections, but throughout the year they host world class events and exhibitions.
- Dumfries
The town of Dumfries is where Burns spent the last years of his life. Greatly inspired by the stunning scenery it was here that Burns created some of his most memorable work and romantic work, including A Red, Red Rose.
The Robert Burns House Museum has been semi reconstructed with period furniture is home to artefacts including some of his letters and books.
Ellisland Farm - where burns and his family once lived can also be found in Dumfries, and you can see even more artefacts and memorabilia.
The Mausoleum in St Michael's Kirk yard is where burns and his wife Jean Armour are now buried after he was removed from his original resting place.
And of course no trip to Dumfries would be complete without a trip to the Robert Burns Centre, the film theatres which shows the story of the poets last years during
Year of the Homecoming 2009
Scotland's Year of Homecoming 2009 will recognise Robert Burns' enduring cultural contribution to Scotland and the world. 2009 is the 250th anniversary of the National Bard's birth.
Robert Burns' Biography
This son of a tenant farmer in Ayrshire, Robert Burns holds a unique place in popular culture for the Scots. No other poet is celebrated and remembered with such enthusiasm every year on the anniversary of his birth: January 25 1759.
Though Burns cultivated his image as the unlearned ploughman poet, he was fairly well educated for the standards of his day. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Robert Burns was that in spite of his years of toil as a farmer, he still had the creative energy to produce some of the finest poetic literature in Scotland, as well as to make a major contribution to the collecting and arranging of Scottish traditional song.
The young poet
* Born in 1759 in a humble cottage which his father had built, by 1774 he was already working on his father's farm near Alloway and had also begun to compose verse. His birthplace cottage is preserved and has been a place of pilgrimage for generations.
* Seeking other ways of earning his living, in 1781 he trained as flax dresser. This process of preparing the fibres was known as ‘heckling'. This training was in a heckling-shop in Irvine. Unfortunately, during a drunken carousal with the shop owner and his wife at Hogmanay, they accidentally set the shop alight. It was destroyed, thus ending his career in the flax business!
* Burns may have been a flax dresser once but he was always a snappy dresser. As a young man he was the only one in the area who wore his hair long and tied, and he habitually wore buckskin breeches - definitely a cut above the average farm labourer. He was certainly aware of his image of a talented but poor poet.
* In 1785 Burns was the father of a daughter to his mother's servant girl, Betty Paton. It was also around this time that he met Jean Armour, the love of his life. By this time, too, his father had died, worn out with the struggle of farming. Burns, along with his brother Gilbert, had rented a farm called Mossgiel and were fully engaged in heavy farmwork. In spite of the toil, Burns entered a time of vital creativity, writing famous works such as ‘The Address to a Mouse', Holy Willie's Prayer' and ‘The Cotter's Saturday Night'.
* The Kilmarnock Edition - Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect - set the poet on a course for fame when this collection of his verses was published in 1786. However, it was the Edinburgh edition published the next year with additional material (including some songs) which made his reputation beyond Scotland. Another publisher took it on in London, then there were pirated editions in Dublin and Belfast. Soon afterwards the collection was published in Philadelphia and New York! Burns saw his success as a way of getting out of farming. He sought a position as an Exciseman, that is, a government officer with a role in policing the distilling industry.
* Sir Walter Scott, Scotland's other literary giant of the age, once met Robert Burns at the home of Professor Adam Ferguson, when Burns was making his mark on Edinburgh society. However, Scott was only sixteen at the time and his own literary success lay many years ahead.
The Women in Burns' life
Burns' love life was very complicated. In the same year as he achieved his first fame as a poet, Jean Armour (later, his wife) produced twins. (Her father as so angry he served a writ on the poet - who also did penance in his own church.) There was also the mystery of Mary Campbell (Highland Mary). Burns swayed between Jean and Mary - but Mary died in 1786 and all Burns' writings about her suggest deep feelings of guilt. The song he wrote for her is called ‘Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary' as at one stage they had planned to go to Jamaica.
Soon after, and during his time being feted in Edinburgh as a literary success, he fathered a child to a servant girl called May Cameron. On his next visit to the capital on the second the same thing happened with an entirely different Edinburgh servant girl! Simultaneously, he was in a passionate relationship (by correspondence only!) with the respectable Agnes M'Lehose (married - but husband in the West Indies), though he also met with her on several occasions. (The passionate letters began when Burns twisted his knee falling from a coach and was unable to keep an appointment with her!) His great song of parting ‘Ae fond kiss and then we sever' was written for her before she rejoined her husband. She was also very shocked to find about Burns' dalliance with various servant girls!
Shortly after, Jean Armour, back in Ayrshire, produced another set of twins by him! (small wonder he contemplated emigration.) He eventually married Jean, tried farming one more time at Ellisland near Dumfries but in 1791 became an Exciseman, settling in the town of Dumfries where he died in 1796. He had nine children with Jean in total but managed another with the niece of the landlady of the Globe Inn in Dumfries. Jean brought up this one as well, remarking famously ‘Oor Rab should hae had twa wives'. At least.
The language of Burns
Many of Burns' best works are written in Lowland Scots. Not all of the vocabulary is in widespread use today but much is accessible for non-Scots with the help of glossaries. However he had read widely in English literature and was encouraged to write in ‘standard English' by the Edinburgh literary set. The result was some of his worst poems! Nevertheless, works such as Tam o Shanter modulate seamlessly from Scots into English and back with the reader hardly noticing.
Burns - a romantic poet? Or just very short-sighted?
Though he was writing just as the Romantic age was beginning, he did not write in the style
which became known as ‘Romantic' He had a farmer's eye for nature and preferred his landscapes worked and tended, rather than wild and rugged. For example, much of his early life was spent within sight of the dramatic profiles of the mountains on the island of Arran, offshore in the Firth of Clyde. He never once referred to these unmissable landscape features in any poem or letter. (Admittedly, some commentators think this was because he might have just been very short-sighted!)
How we celebrate Robert Burns today.
On or around the poet's birthdate of 25th January, Scots at home and abroad gather to celebrate their national poet. The general format of these evening gatherings comprises a traditional meal of haggis with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) and whisky. The haggis is ceremonially brought to the top table accompanied by a piper. Burns' poem 'To a Haggis' is usually recited and the haggis stabbed. The evening proceeds with toasts and speeches celebrating the unique relationship which Scots feel towards their poet.
Burns Suppers got under way within a few years of the poet's death. Some say the first was actually held in Burns' Cottage itself in 1801.
In 2006 a Scottish mountaineer intends to set a world record for holding the highest Burns Supper. Chris Dunlop from Glasgow will toast Scotland's national poet at 23,000, on Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. He hopes to dine on haggis, neeps and tatties (from a tin!) and will give the Selkirk Grace, address the haggis, toast both the lassies and Scotland with a dram before concluding with the singing of Auld Lang Syne!
However, it is hoped that Burns Suppers, irrespective of their height, will just be the start of a year-long celebration in 2009, the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth. Plans are coming together to organise events to celebrate Burns' contribution to Scottish cultural life, and develop initiatives to encourage Scots worldwide to return to Scotland in what is termed Homecoming Scotland 2009.
A note on haggis
The very symbol of Scottish cuisine, it is entirely appropriate that haggis is the standard fare at Burns Supper - and not just because Burns himself wrote a poem about it! Haggis uses up the less-valued cuts of the sheep. It was thus an economical dish - which could even be described as classic traditional peasant-food. Such humble food is a reminder, too, of the poet's ordinary background. These days, haggis probably won't be cooked in a sheep's stomach. And you definitely don't have to pour whisky over it. (Burns would have been shocked at such a waste of whisky.)
Some extracts from Burns' poems and songs
Still thou art blest, compar'd wi me!
The present only touches thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An forward, tho I canna see,
I guess and fear!
From ‘To a Mouse' - perhaps the most popular and most often quoted of his animal poems, this one also has the well-known lines ‘The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men / Gang aft agley'. Though sentimental in subject matter, the poem also has a realism and an authenticity, and is full of the atmosphere of a wintery day's ploughing.
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 for a' that win the prize
For a' that and a' that
It's comin' yet for a' that
That man to man the world o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that
From ‘A Man's a Man for a' That'- still frequently sung in Scotland with ‘pride and passion' (a phrase which Burns used in correspondence with Agnes M'Lehose to describe his two most important elements). A reminder that Burns also held strong political views but also believed ultimately in the brotherhood of man.
But pleasures are like poppies spread - / You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed:
Or like the snow falls in the river- / A moment white, then melts for ever;
- a philosophical moment in the pacy, racy comic narrative ‘Tam o' Shanter'. Note the use of standard English in this section. This poem was written in 1791 at a time when the greater part of Burns poetic output was already behind him and he was concentrating on collecting and reworking Scottish folk-song. Tam was probably a certain Douglas Graham, who lived at Shanter Farm near the village of Maidens. He had a famously nagging wife.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly
Never met - or never parted
We had ne'er been broken hearted.
The fourth stanza of ‘Ae Fond Kiss', the great song of romantic parting still sung today. What else needs be said?!
Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot old
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne long ago
(Chorus)
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye'll be your pint stowp! (pint) measure
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne
And here's a hand my trusty fiere friend
And gie's a hand o' thine
And we'll tak a right gude-willie-waught good-will swig
For auld lang syne
- the words and tune of the song of parting have gone round the world. They somehow defy translation - but everyone knows what you mean! Burns never claimed these lyrics as all his own, but there are another two verses - less commonly sung - which have his hand in them, and there is at least one other tune.
What do you think?
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
