1. Robert Burns and Percy B. Shelley:
Revolutionary Writers of the Romantic Movement
By Cindy L. Carrillo
Copyright July, 2016
The Romantic Movement was a moment in time when societal, artistic, economic and
political transition was taking place because many were dissatisfied with the existing system of
governance. Robert Burns and Percy B. Shelly, two distinct poetic geniuses were among those
who were dissatisfied. Their passion for life and liberty, coupled with their revolutionary poetic
presence and Romantic ideals regarding political, economics, and social issues are unmistakable
in their poetry. Through the lens of Robert Burns’s “A Man’s A Man for A That” and “Tam
O’Shanter” and Percy Shelley’s “The Mask of Anarchy,” I will explain how each writer shares
similar revolutionary passions, but how their goals, and approaches are distinctly different.
The French Revolution was the catalyst that sparked the fire of change in Europe
following the Age of Enlightenment. It was also the fuel, which sparked many deep, emotional
poems written by Burns and Shelley. Both poets share similar themes in their writings of
equality, freedom and liberty for all men.
In Burns’s poem, “A Man’s a Man for A That,” commonly called “Is There For Honest
Poverty,” Burns encapsulate his egalitarian ideology on equality for the common man. In his
poem, Burns uses a lyrical voice evoking Scottish nationalism to address social issues that posed
problems for common men living in 18th Century. In verse one, Burns uses the phrases, “Our
toils obscure an' a' that,/ The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,” in response to society’s emphasis
on social class being the measure of a man rather than the efforts of a man’s hard work defining