Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), more commonly known by his nickname, Rabbie Burns. He has received worldwide acclaim and is widely considered to be Scotland’s national poet.
Although much of his work is written in a “light Scots dialect” of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland, he is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language. He also produced works in standard English, where his commentary on civil or political affairs is often at its most direct.
A Cultural Icon
In Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world, he is widely recognised as an early contributor to the Romantic movement and a major influence on the ideologies of liberalism and socialism.
His influence on Scottish literature has endured for centuries, and the 19th and 20th centuries saw the celebration of his life and work almost rise to the level of a national charismatic cult. In a 2009 poll conducted by STV, the Scottish public voted him the greatest Scot.
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Facts About His Life
Burns’s father moved the family from Kincardineshire to Ayrshire in an effort to better their financial situation. Despite working tirelessly on the farms he leased (Mount Oliphant in 1766 and Lochlea in 1777), however, he was doomed to financial ruin and passed away in 1784, exhausted and in debt.
Witnessing his father’s humiliation in this way likely contributed to Robert’s development as a radical opponent of the prevailing social norms of his day and a scathing critic of any and all systems of belief, religious or otherwise, that upheld or encouraged the practise of inhumanity.
He had some formal instruction from a teacher and picked up additional knowledge here and there from various other sources. He read most of the major 18th-century English authors, including Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden, and he picked up a rudimentary grasp of French and Latin as well.
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At The Time, The Only Scottish Literature
he had read was a modernised version of a poem written in the late 15th century. It appears that throughout his adult years, he practised a humanitarian Deist faith.
Young Burns worked hard on the farm, and he did so with pride, restlessness, and an undefined ambition. The death of his father made him the tenant of the Mossgiel farm where the family had relocated, and he was now free to find male and female companionship wherever he pleased.
He sided with a local gentleman named Gavin Hamilton, who was in trouble with the kirk session (a church court) for Sabbath breaking, and against the dominant extreme Calvinist wing of the church in Ayrshire. His first child was born in 1785 to a farmhand named Elizabeth Paton, and he wrote a rousing poem to celebrate the birth of his son.
Following Edinburgh
Burns left for Edinburgh on a borrowed pony on November 27th, 1786. Subscription bills for William Creech’s Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, the first Edinburgh edition published on 17 April 1787, were issued on 14 December.
One week after this occurred, Burns sold his copyright to Creech for 100 guineas. The oval bust-length portrait by Alexander Nasmyth, now on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, was commissioned by Creech for the edition and engraved for the frontispiece.
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Almost all subsequent portrayals of Burns are based on Nasmyth’s knowledge of the poet and his fresh, appealing portrayal of him. At aristocratic gatherings in Edinburgh, he carried himself with unaffected dignity and was treated as an equal by the city’s literary elite, which included the likes of Dugald Stewart, Robertson, and Blair.
Here he met and left an indelible impression on 16-year-old Walter Scott, who would later write this about him with great admiration:
The fact that Burns was able to channel the soul of traditional folk music and create brand new versions of songs like “I’m O’er Young to Marry Yet” and “Green Grow the Rashes, O” by adapting an old chorus is nothing short of miraculous. The unique emotions that Burns evokes, emotions that take the form of the “Burns cult,” can be explained by his uncanny ability to speak with the great anonymous voice of the Scottish people.