While Burns loved the lassies, his legacy is much deeper and more wide-ranging poetically than his love life. Some of his songs are so familiar, perhaps we can overlook his literary significance – both of his time and of ours. The musicality of his song writing and poems, is unmatched and many famous poets and songsmiths name Burns as a favourite writer– from Bob Dylan to Wordsworth.
In his short life he touched hearts, wrote of the worth of man (and woman), respect for the natural world, of freedom fighters, and he was a man o independent mind.
“Poetry hold s mirror to a nations heart and soul. “ Jackie Key
“Its the language of being human”
*Famous Scots Poems 20th century
Memo for Spring - Liz Lochead
Drunk man looks at a Thistle – Hugh MacDiarmid
In my Country – Jackie Kay
A Man in Assynt – Norman McCaig
Gaelic Song
A rare beauty, or the big sky of Lewis.
Gaelic poems were songs, tunes and words intertwined. The connections to place.
Norman McCaig
“Who owns this landscape – has it anything to do with love? Even the dead are part of it. Land is a character…Landscape is my religion, I feel at home. My substitute for religion and politics.“
Drunk man looks at a thistle – Hugh MacDiarmid – Where extremes meet
His poem, revolutionized Scots poetry ’to be yoursell”
“He showed us that small nations are better than large ones, and the possibility of a new Scotland.” Alan Riach. “A revolutionary vision of what society can be. To rethink the Burns cult for a multi-faceted identity. Language matters.”
