burns biography with pics

8/8/2019 Burns Biography With Pics

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ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796)

National Poet of Scotland—national obsession/worship of Burns

Wrote many poems, as well as collected many Scottish folk songs

Burns’ Life

Born in the village of Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland

Burns Cottage in Alloway, Scotland

Son of a small tenant farmer, and was a farmer himself most of his life—unsuccessfully



Watching his father struggle inspired Burns to rebel against the social order of his day and to satirize inhuman

religious and political thought

Had little regular schooling

Liked women—a lot; formed the “Tarbolton Bachelor’s Club” at age 20 w/ his brother

In 1784 meet Jean Armour, whom he later married. She bore him twins in 1786, and although her father initially

forbade their marriage, they were eventually married in 1788. She bore him nine children in total, but only three

survived infancy. This is the “Bonnie Jean” of some of his poems.



Learned Scottish literature from folk tales and songs

Published Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect which was immediately successful



In 1786 went to Edinburgh to oversee book publishing; received as an equal by the city’s aristocrats and made a

lasting impression on 16-year-old Walter Scott, who described him later with great admiration:

“His person was strong and robust; his manners rustic, not clownish, a sort of dignified plainness and simplicity

which received part of its effect perhaps from knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His features . . . convey the

idea that they are diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his countenance was more massive than it looks in

any of the portraits . . . there was a strong expression of shrewdness in all his lineaments; the eye alone, I think,

indicated the poetical character and temperament. It was large, and of a dark cast, and literally glowed when he

spoke with feeling or interest. I never saw such another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most

distinguished men of my time.”

Burns in Edinburgh, Scotland

Burns in Edinburgh, Scotland—with MacBook

While in Edinburgh, Burns began to write many lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland

Was an active, high-ranking Freemason

As his health declined, Burns began to age prematurely and fell into fits of despondency. Intemperance is said to have

aggravated his long-standing rheumatic heart condition. In fact, his death was caused by “bacterial endocarditis

exacerbated by a streptococcal infection reaching his blood following a dental extraction” in winter 1795. On 21 July

1796 he died in Dumfries at the age of 37. The funeral took place on 25 July 1796, the day his son Maxwell was born. A

memorial edition of his poems was published to raise money for his wife and children, and within a short time of his

death, money started pouring in from all over Scotland to support them.



Burns’ Work

Wrote in English, Scotch Gaelic, and in a Scottish-English dialect

Identifies with Scottish folk tradition by building on fragments of Scottish popular songs

Topics include republicanism, radicalism, patriotism, class inequalities, gender roles, poverty, love, socializing

(carousing, folks songs, whisky consumption, etc.)

Burns Mausoleum in Annan, Scotland



Burns’ Influence

He is generally classified as a proto-Romantic poet, and he influenced William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

and Percy Bysshe Shelley greatly

Every year Scotsmen celebrate his birth and host “Burns suppers”



Haggis served on Burns’ Night —notice the plate (haggis is essentially boiled guts of sheep)



Robert Burns’ statue in London’s Embankment Gardens

Burns socks, from the Burns’ Museum



Various Burns monuments



Same monument as above, recently torched by an arsonist

More Burns monuments, one with a bird on his head

http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknoteapp/CLYDE_5.html



http://www.klickthis.com/gallery-architecture-scotland-large-173.html




Steinbeck ’s novel title comes from Burns’ “To a Mouse”

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/OfMiceAndMen.jpg



“Auld Lang Syne” draft

burns biography with pics

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