2. Robert Burns
(25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796)
• (also known as Robbie Burns,
Rabbie Burns, Scotland's
favourite son, the Ploughman
Poet, Robden of Solway Firth,
the Bard of Ayrshire and in
Scotland as The Bard) was a
Scottish poet and lyricist. He is
widely regarded as the national
poet of Scotland and is
celebrated worldwide. He is the
best known of the poets who
have written in the Scots
language, although much of his
writing is also in English and a
light Scots dialect, accessible to
an audience beyond Scotland. He
also wrote in standard English,
and in these writings his political
or civil commentary is often at
its bluntest.
3. He is regarded as a pioneer of
the Romantic movement
• and after his death he became a
great source of inspiration to
the founders of both liberalism
and socialism, and a cultural
icon in Scotland and among the
Scottish Diaspora around the
world. Celebration of his life
and work became almost a
national charismatic cult during
the 19th and 20th centuries,
and his influence has long been
strong on Scottish literature. In
2009 he was chosen as the
greatest Scot by the Scottish
public in a vote run by Scottish
television channel STV.
4. Poems and songs by Burns
• As well as making original
compositions, Burns also
collected folk songs from across
Scotland, often revising or
adapting them. His poem (and
song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often
sung at Hogmanay (the last day
of the year), and "Scots Wha
Hae" served for a long time as
an unofficial national anthem of
the country. Other poems and
songs of Burns that remain well
known across the world today
include "A Red, Red Rose"; "A
Man's a Man for A' That"; "To a
Louse"; "To a Mouse"; "The
Battle of Sherramuir"; "Tam o'
Shanter"; and "Ae Fond Kiss".
5. Kilmarnock Edition
• As Burns lacked the funds to
pay for his passage to the
West Indies, Gavin Hamilton
suggested that he should
"publish his poems in the
mean time by subscription,
as a likely way of getting a
little money to provide him
more liberally in necessaries
for Jamaica." On 3 April
Burns sent proposals for
publishing his Scotch Poems
to John Wilson, a local
printer in Kilmarnock, who
published these proposals on
14 April 1786
6. • On 31 July 1786 John Wilson published
the volume of works by Robert Burns,
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect.
Known as the Kilmarnock volume, it sold
for 3 shillings and contained much of his
best writing, including "The Twa Dogs",
"Address to the Deil", "Halloween", "The
Cotter's Saturday Night", "To a Mouse",
"Epitaph for James Smith", and "To a
Mountain Daisy", many of which had been
written at Mossgiel farm. The success of
the work was immediate, and soon he
was known across the country. Burns
postponed his planned emigration to
Jamaica on 1 September, and was at
Mossgiel two days later when he learnt
that Jean Armour had given birth to
twins. On 4 September Thomas Blacklock
wrote a letter expressing admiration for
the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume, and
suggesting an enlarged second edition. A
copy of it was passed to Burns
7. Edinburgh
• On 27 November 1786 Burns borrowed a pony
and set out for Edinburgh. On 14 December
William Creech issued subscription bills for
the first Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly
in the Scottish dialect, which was published
on 17 April 1787. Within a week of this
event, Burns had sold his copyright to Creech
for 100 guineas.For the edition, Creech
commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to paint
the oval bust-length portrait now in the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which was
engraved to provide a frontispiece for the
book. Nasmyth had got to know Burns and his
fresh and appealing image has become the
basis for almost all subsequent
representations of the poet. In Edinburgh, he
was received as an equal by the city's men of
letters—including Dugald Stewart, Robertson,
Blair and others—and was a guest at
aristocratic gatherings, where he bore
himself with unaffected dignity. Here he
encountered, and made a lasting impression
on, the 16-year-old Walter Scott
8. Lyricist
• On his return to Ayrshire on 18 February
1788 he resumed his relationship with
Jean Armour and took a lease on the
farm of Ellisland near Dumfries on 18
March (settling there on 11 June) but
trained as a Gauger or exciseman, in
case farming continued to prove
unsuccessful. After giving up his farm he
removed to Dumfries. It was at this
time that, being requested to write
lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland, he
responded by contributing over 100
songs. He made major contributions to
George Thomson's A Select Collection of
Original Scottish Airs for the Voice as
well as to James Johnson's Scots Musical
Museum. Arguably his claim to
immortality chiefly rests on these
volumes, which placed him in the front
rank of lyric poets.
9. Literary style
• Burns's style is marked by spontaneity,
directness, and sincerity, and ranges
from the tender intensity of some of his
lyrics through the humour of "Tam o'
Shanter" and the satire of "Holy Willie's
Prayer" and "The Holy Fair".Burns's poetry
drew upon a substantial familiarity with
and knowledge of Classical, Biblical, and
English literature, as well as the Scottish
Makar tradition. Burns was skilled in
writing not only in the Scots language
but also in the Scottish English dialect of
the English language. 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.
10. • The strong emotional highs and lows
associated with many of Burns's
poems have led some, such as Burns
biographer Robert Crawford, to
suggest that he suffered from manic
depression—a hypothesis that has
been supported by analysis of various
samples of his handwriting. Burns
himself referred to suffering from
episodes of what he called "blue
devilism". However, the National Trust
for Scotland has downplayed the
suggestion on the grounds that
evidence is insufficient to support the
claim. His themes included
republicanism (he lived during the
French Revolutionary period) and
Radicalism, which he expressed
covertly in "Scots Wha Hae", 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 socialising
(carousing, Scotch whisky, folk songs,
and so forth).
11. Influence
Britain
• Burns is generally classified as a
proto-Romantic poet, and he
influenced William Wordsworth,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and
Percy Bysshe Shelley greatly. His
direct literary influences in the
use of Scots in poetry were Allan
Ramsay and Robert Fergusson.
The Edinburgh literati worked to
sentimentalise Burns during his
life and after his death,
dismissing his education by
calling him a "heaven-taught
ploughman". Burns influenced
later Scottish writers, especially
Hugh MacDiarmid, who fought to
dismantle what he felt had
become a sentimental cult that
dominated Scottish literature.
12. Canada
• Burns had a significant influence on
Alexander McLachlan and some influence
on Robert Service. While this may not be
so obvious in Service's English verse,
which is Kiplingesque, it is more readily
apparent in his Scots verse. Scottish
Canadians have embraced Robert Burns
as a kind of patron poet and mark his
birthday with festivities. 'Robbie Burns
Day' is celebrated from Newfoundland
and Labrador to Nanaimo. Every year,
Canadian newspapers publish biographies
of the poet, listings of local events and
buffet menus. Universities mark the date
in a range of ways: McMaster University
library organized a special collection and
Simon Fraser University's Centre for
Scottish Studies organized a marathon
reading of Burns' poetry). Senator Heath
Macquarrie quipped of Canada's first
Prime Minister that "While the lovable
[Robbie] Burns went in for wine, women
and song, his fellow Scot, John A. did not
chase women and was not musical!"
'Gung Haggis Fat Choy' is a hybrid of
Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day,
celebrated in Vancouver since the late
1990s.
13. United States • In January 1864, President Abraham
Lincoln was invited to attend a Robert
Burns celebration by Robert Crawford;
and if unable to attend, send a toast.
Lincoln composed a toast. An example of
Burns's literary influence in the U.S. is
seen in the choice by novelist John
Steinbeck of the title of his 1937 novel,
Of Mice and Men, taken from a line in the
second-to-last stanza of "To a Mouse":
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men /
Gang aft agley." Burns's influence on
American vernacular poets such as James
Whitcomb Riley and Frank Lebby Stanton
has been acknowledged by their
biographers. When asked for the source of
his greatest creative inspiration, singer
songwriter Bob Dylan selected Burns's
1794 song "A Red, Red Rose" as the lyric
that had the biggest effect on his life.[The
author J. D. Salinger used protagonist
Holden Caulfield's misinterpretation of
Burns's poem "Comin' Through the Rye" as
his title and a main interpretation of
Caulfield's grasping to his childhood in his
1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. The
poem, actually about a rendezvous, is
thought by Caulfield to be about saving
people from falling out of childhood.
14. Russia
• Burns became the "people's poet" of
Russia. In Imperial Russia Burns was
translated into Russian and became a
source of inspiration for the ordinary,
oppressed Russian people. In Soviet
Russia, he was elevated as the
archetypal poet of the people. As a
great admirer of the egalitarian ethos
behind the American and French
Revolutions who expressed his own
egalitarianism in poems such as his
"Birthday Ode for George Washington"
or his "Is There for Honest Poverty"
(commonly known as "A Man's a Man
for a' that"), Burns was well placed
for endorsement by the Communist
regime as a "progressive" artist. A new
translation of Burns begun in 1924 by
Samuil Marshak proved enormously
popular, selling over 600,000 copies.
The USSR honoured Burns with a
commemorative stamp in 1956. He
remains popular in Russia after the
fall of the Soviet Union
15. Failing health and death
• Robert Burns Mausoleum at St.
Michael's churchyard in Dumfries.
His political views also came to the
notice of his employers and in an
attempt to prove his loyalty to the
Crown, Burns joined the Royal
Dumfries Volunteers in March 1795.
As his health began to give way, he
began to age prematurely and fell
into fits of despondency. The habits
of intemperance (alleged mainly by
temperance activist James
Currie)are said to have aggravated
his long-standing possible
rheumatic heart condition. His
death followed a dental extraction
in winter 1795. On the morning of
21 July 1796 Burns died in
Dumfries, at the age of 37. His
body was eventually moved to its
location in the same cemetery, the
Burns Mausoleum, in September
1815.
16. Robert Burns
Birthplace Museum
• Robert Burns Birthplace
Museum offers a truly unique
encounter with Scotland’s
favourite son. Set among 10
acres of the poet’s cherished
Alloway countryside, the
museum comprises the
famous Burns Cottage where
the poet was born, the
historic landmarks where he
set his greatest work, the
elegant monument and
gardens created in his honour
and a modern museum
housing the world’s most
important collection of his life
and works.
17. The Birthplace collection
Containing goose-quill nibs, a sharpening knife and a tiny inkwell,
Robert carried this writing set with him as he travelled through the
countryside. The poet was fond of quoting another writer, Thomas
Gray, in thinking ‘a word fix’d on the spot is worth a cart-load of
recollection’ and these tools of his trade would have helped him do
this on country walks, or while working in the open air.
18. Holy fairs were twice-yearly open-air events that aimed to prepare
the righteous for Communion. The people in the centre of the
painting are caught in a moral tug-of-war between the kirk (left) and
the pub (right). Robert Burns is pictured on the right of the painting
walking arm-in-arm with ‘Fun’ (dressed in white), leaving
‘Superstition’ and ‘Hypocrisy’ (cloaked in black and gripping a prayer
book) to go their own miserable way.
19. Wylie’s interests include Robert Burns and shipping, and both have been
combined in this tongue-in-cheek sculpture by the Gourock-based artist.
The ship or ‘liner’ has a cargo of shortbread tins bearing a portrait of the
poet, and a Burns quote or ‘line’ on happiness painted onto the side of
the tins, ‘Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of
others, this is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at
large, or any individual in it, this is my measure of iniquity’.
20. From the age of 30 until his death seven years later, Robert
Burns was an exciseman. Taking taxes on goods such malted
grain, alcohol, paper, and soap was unpopular and the job of
the exciseman or gauger was a risky business. For this reason
Burns carried these pistols which are personalised with his
initials.
21. Alloway’s link to Burns has attracted artists for over two
centuries. Burns Monument and the Brig o’ Doon, painted here
by David Roberts, were both iconic sites by the mid-19th
century. Roberts, who spent much of his career depicting the
architecture of the Near East, North Africa and Italy, focussed
on buildings closer to home in his final years.
22. This is the only surviving sheet, out of 96 printed, advertising the proposal
to print ‘Scotch Poems’ by Robert Burns. Reassured by promises to buy 350
books, John Wilson printed almost double that number in July 1786. Poems,
Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect sold like hot cakes! Burns has scored off
subscribers’ names, no doubt following-up on promises to buy his book. In
all, 16 people have agreed to buy 20 books but one name hasn’t honoured
their promise. Beside William Lorimer’s name Burns notes ‘The Blockhead
refused it’.
23. This manuscript records one of Burns’s best known works, Tam o’
Shanter. Robert handwrote several copies of Tam o’ Shanter to send
to his friends. This version of the poem is unusual because it includes
four lines that speak harshly about lawyers and priests. Robert was
advised to remove these lines before publication. The main scenes of
the poem take place at two Alloway landmarks: the Auld Kirk, and
Brig o’ Doon.
24. This cast of Burns’s skull was made in 1834 when his grave was
opened to admit his wife’s body. Phrenologists – now considered
pseudo-scientists – believed a skull’s shape and dimensions revealed
its owner’s personality. Phrenologist George Combe studied the cast
of Burns’s skull and concluded that he had an ‘extremely active brain’
and skills in languages and mathematics. This report shows the
fascination with Robert’s personality, only 37 years after his death.
25. Burns is often depicted wearing a waistcoat. These six polished
agate spheres are fastening buttons which once adorned such a
garment. The markings on some agates resemble cat’s eyes. At the
time of Burns, agates were worn by some to protect against the
evil eye, and by others to make themselves ‘agreeable and
persuasive’. Which reason do you think would have appealed to
Burns?
26. Burns key dates
• 1759 Born in Alloway on 25 January
• 1765–8 Burnes family move to Mount Oliphant Farm, near Alloway
• 1766 Burnes family move to Mount Oliphant Farm, near Alloway
• 1774 Writes his first song, O once I lov’d [a bonnie lass]
• 1777 Burnes family move to Lochlea Farm, near Tarbolton
• 1781 Becomes a Freemason
• 1781 Moves to Irvine to learn flax-dressing (preparing flax so it can be made
into linen)
• 1784 His father, William Burnes, dies. The family move to Mossgiel Farm, near
Mauchline
• 1784 The family change their name to Burns
• 1785 Meets Jean Armour. Becomes a father for the first time, to Elizabeth,
born to maidservant Elizabeth Paton
• 1785–6 Has an affair with Margaret Campbell (‘Highland Mary’)
• 1786 The first edition of Burns’s Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is
published in Kilmarnock
• 1786 Abandons plans to emigrate to Jamaica to work on a slave plantation.
Instead, travels to Edinburgh to look into publishing a second edition
of his poems
• 1786 Enters into ‘a form of wedlock’ with Jean Armour
• 1786 Becomes a father to twins Robert and Jean Burns, born to Jean Armour
27. • 1787 Second edition of poems is published in Edinburgh. Meets James Johnson
and agrees to contribute to The Scots Musical Museum
• 1787 Tours the Highlands, Stirlingshire and the Borders, collecting local songs
and airs
• 1787 Becomes a father to a child, born to Edinburgh servant girl May Cameron
• 1787 Meets Agnes McLehose (‘Clarinda’)
• 1788 Marriage to Jean Armour is officially recognised by the Kirk
• 1788 Becomes a father to twin daughters, born to Jean
• 1788 Moves to Ellisland Farm, near Dumfries
• 1788 Becomes a father to Robert, born to Edinburgh serving maid Jenny Clow
• 1789 Becomes a father to Francis Wallace Burns, born to Jean
• 1789 Begins work as an Excise officer
• 1790 Writes Tam o’ Shanter
• 1791 Becomes a father to Elizabeth (‘Betty’), born to barmaid Anna Park
• 1791 Moves to Dumfries
• 1791 Becomes a father to William Nicol Burns, born to Jean
• 1792 Becomes a father to Elizabeth Riddell Burns, born to Jean
• 1792 Begins work on A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs with George
Thomson
• 1794 Becomes a father to James Glencairn Burns, born to Jean
