He remains today, not only Scotland's, but one of
the world's greatest poets. He notably wrote one of the greatest love poems and
songs My Love is Like a Red Red Rose and
also Green Grow the Rashes O.
One of the greatest parting songs, Ae Fond Kiss
He also wrote one of the greatest poems ever to friendship,
Auld Lang Syne.
I recited and
sang Burn's poems at primary school, I remember well, Up in
the Mornings' No For Me and To A Mouse as well as Ca the Knowes. Recently
the beautiful versions of Ae Fond Kiss by Scottish female singers Eddi
Reader and Karen Matheson have brought Burns back into my life. As has the
powerful version of Green Grow the Rashes O by Michael
Marra.
He wrote some of the greatest poems on nature such
as To a Mouse, Westlin Winds, Mountain
Daisy and more
He wrote political poetry, sometimes over looked and
even ignored - on slavery Slaves Lament,
on selling people down the river and on the rich being bribed in Parcel of Rogues to the Nation.
Few poets have managed to do this so clearly,
beautifully or so movingly. His words
have musicality and fit perfectly to melodic tunes (not written by Burns)
He also wrote one of the greatest poems on equality,
A Mans a Man For All That -
that in
another place might have been made into a song
and caused a revolution.
The Romantic Poets and Their Circles
Oddly, I wonder is Burns taught in English schools
while we learn Shakespeare here in Scotland. I am reading a book by professor
Richard Holmes on 'The Romantic Poets and Their Circles' which includes Burns. Surprisingly Burns's important and world-renowned
catalogue of work is squeezed into two simple pages.
Walter Scott is also squeezed in somewhere as
another after thought.
Robert Southey is remembered for his Three Bears
story, Wordsworth for his daffodils;
Shelley, To a Lark; Keats, Ode to a
Nightingale. I am not sure that many can recite or sing these poets words though.
There are other errors too - Jerusalem, written by
William Blake, is referred to as a substitute British national anthem!
We understand Burns, he is everyman – he grew up
with nothing yet he brought words of magic and spiritualism. I read of the
romantic poets, of Shelley educated at Eton and many of them attended Cambridge University and I realise that many of them were men and women of privilege - Shelly in his yacht, Turner travelling
Europe. Wheras Burns received a chequered and diverse education as the oldest
son of a poor farmer.
There are similarities between Scots, Irish, Welsh
and `English but there are also profound differences.
I was surprised to learn during the referendum that Scotland is a third
of Britain's land mass. I was saddened that the better Together campaigners knocked on old lady pensioners doors to scare them about loosing the pound and
their pensions. A fight based on fear
and lies does not produce harmonious results.
Robert Burns (1759-96) remains
Scotland's greatest poet, songwriter and song-collector. Regarded by Keats and
Wordsworth as a morning star of the Romantic Movement in verse, he was also
admired by Beethoven and Haydn who set accompaniments for many of his songs. A
farmer turned excise officer, he attracted censure for his outspoken advocacy
of electoral and parliamentary reform, yet he died a serving soldier in a
Volunteer Regiment during the wars with post-revolutionary France. The Burns
Encyclopaedia was first published in 1959 by Maurice Lindsay and this is the
fourth edition - the first since 1980. All aspects of the poet's biography and
literary output are covered, as are his correspondents and contemporaries, many
of the latter set against the backdrop of Enlightenment Edinburgh. The present
edition has been thoroughly