Robert Burns

Burns is one of the greatest English Romantic poets in the late 18th century England.
He was born into a poor Scottish peasant family.

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish poet and a 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.
HIS LIFE

Burns was born in Alloway, South Ayrshire, the eldest of the seven children of William Burness

He was born in a house built by his father (now the Burns Cottage Museum), where he lived until Easter 1766, when he was seven years old.
Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, however, his casual love affairs did not endear him to the elders of the local kirk and created for him a reputation for dissoluteness amongst his neighbours.

He got little school education.
He could never earn enough money to support his family. He lived in great poverty all his life.
He was a poetic genius. He had an aptitude for Scottish folk songs.

Burns wrote many poems in English.
His best poems The Jolly Beggars, Halloween, Holy Willie’s Prayer, to a mouse, the two dogs and others.
Burns travelled a lot about Scotland collecting popular folk songs.
Many of his poems were put to music.

Poetry of Burns
The poems of Burns are written in the Scottish dialect on a variety of subjects.
1) Political poems
2) Satirical poems
3) Lyrics
Mainly, 3 kinds
Examples

Works of Burns
Among 560 poems and songs , the most loved are :
Ae Fond Kiss
A Red Red Rose
Tam O’Shanter
Address to the Haggis
Tae a Moose
A Man’s a Man for A’ That and
Auld Lang Syne

Lyrical: A red, red rose
written in 1794, published in 1796

The poet’s song «Oh, my love is like a Red rose», is one of the most loved lyrical songs.
Many of songs he devoted to his wife.
Burns songs are the soul of music.
Beethoven, Schuman, Mendelssohn, others compose music to the poets verses.

People like Burns poetry, because it is very close to people’s lives.
He wrote about the national struggle of the Scottish people for their liberation from English oppression.
Burns considered his literary work as his patriotic duty.

Burns and the Lasses
Burns married his life-long love Jean Armour
He had 11 children with 4 different women
He said ‘ The sweetest hours that ere I spent were spent amang the lasses o’

Burns Day
Celebrated all over the world with food and drink , dancing , poetry and song.