Robert Burns: National Poet, National HeroMrs. Cumberland

Objectives:1. To become acquainted with Burns through his more

familiar song2. To examine how Burns’s poetry dignifies common people3. To explore how Burns’s writing displays characteristics of

the later Romantic Movement

In the 18th century, people often though of country folk as oafish and rustic, lacking the elegance and polish of their “betters.”

However, the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau altered this attitude when he set forth his doctrine of “primitivism”

He believed that the earliest men and women were closer to nature, uncorrupted by society, and thus nobler than “civilized” people

Country people and children were also superior because they had escaped the corrupting influences of city life

Burns looked to historical Scottish songs and poetry rather than English culture for his inspiration in writing poetry, but his work demonstrates many qualities admired by the Romantics

In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth prescribes the use of the unadorned language of common people as that best suited to poetry

In some respects, although Burns died before the 1801 publication of the Preface, he comes as close to Wordsworth’s ideal as any later Romantic poet

Indeed, later romantic poets regarded Burns’s songs as exemplary

Born in 1759 in a two-room cottage built by his father, Burns spent almost his entire life working on a small farm

His tremendous zest for life, wide-ranging interest in songs and ideas and love, and his philosophic turn of mind came together in a wide body of poetry

This poetry came at the end of an important time in Scottish culture- the Scottish Enlightenment- and while he often played upon his reputation as an unlettered man of the people, he was able to hold his own when he went to Edinburgh, the “Athens of the North,” and met with the Edinburgh literati, who lionized him after the publictation of his first volume of poetry

The reputation of Burns- “Robbie” to his countrymen- rests on two factors He wrote in Scots, a dialect that was neglected by Scottish

writer His poems covered a vast range: elegy, philosophy,

politics, nature, love He proved that Scots could be used as effectively as

English He celebrated the joys, sorrow, and love of simple people His countrymen and the world held him to their hearts

Second, he rescued countless folk sons from oblivion Many of his finest poems are beautifully musical,

and his “auld Lang Syne” is universally known and loved

Burns is often called the national hero of Scotland, not for brave deeds in battle, but because he, perhaps more than any other poet of that country, took the heart and should of the people, put it in their own language, and left a legacy that is still remembered

Today, more than 200 hundred years after his death, countless hundreds of “Burns’ Suppers” are held on the anniversary of his birth, celebrating a man who loved life, the world, and the human family