Robert burns famous poems
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Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns
Robert Burns is the best loved Scottish poet, admired not only for his verse and great love-songs, but also for his character, his high spirits, ‘kirk-defying’, hard drinking and womanising! He came to fame as a poet when he was 27 years old, and his lifestyle of wine, women and song made him famous all over Scotland.
He was the son of a farmer, born in a cottage built by his father, in Alloway in Ayr. This cottage is now a museum, dedicated to Burns.
As a boy, he always loved stories of the supernatural, told to him by an old widow who sometimes helped out on his fathers’ farm and when Burns reached adulthood, he turned many of these stories into poems.
After the death of his father in 1784, Burns inherited the farm but by 1786 he was in terrible financial difficulties: the farm was not successful and he had made two women pregnant. Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica so to raise the money required for this journey, he published his ‘Poems in the Scottish Dialect’ in 1786, which was an immediate success. He was
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Biography
Early life
Robert Burns was born on 25 January 1759 in the village of Alloway, two miles south of Ayr. His parents, Willian Burnes[s] and Agnes Broun, were tenant farmers but they ensured their son received a relatively good education and he began to read avidly. The works of Alexander Pope, Henry Mackenzie and Laurence Sterne fired Burns's poetic impulse and relationships with the opposite sex provided his inspiration. Handsome Nell, for Nellie Kilpatrick, was his first song.
Hard physical labour on the family farm took its toll on the young Burns, who increasingly turned his attentions towards the passions of poetry, nature, drink and women which would characterise the rest of his life. He fathered twins with eventual wife Jean Armour, but a rift in their relationship nearly led to Burns emigrating to the West Indies with lover Mary Campbell (his Highland Mary). Mary's sudden death and the sensational success of his first published collection of verse kept him in Scotland. At just 27, Burns had already become famous across the country with poems such as To a Louse,
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Robert Burns: Scotland's National Bard
Robert Burns, affectionately known as Scotland's national bard, was born on January 25, 1759, in Alloway, Ayrshire, and passed away on July 21, 1796, in Dumfries. His relatively short life was nonetheless prolific and impactful, leaving behind a rich legacy that continues to resonate not just in Scotland, but around the world. Burns' oeuvre is a vibrant tapestry that weaves together the rustic life of 18th-century Scotland, its people, politics, and the poet's own philosophies and emotional landscapes.
Burns' body of work is vast and varied, encompassing traditional Scottish ballads, lyrical poems, satires, epistles, and songs. Among his most famous works are "Auld Lang Syne," often sung to bid farewell to the old year across the globe; "Tam o' Shanter," a narrative poem brimming with humor and vivid character sketches; and "To a Mouse," which reflects on the themes of empathy and the fragile nature of life. His songs, such as "A Red, Red Rose" and "Scots Wha Hae," have become integral parts of Scottish cultural identity, celebrated
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