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Robert Burns

May 06, 2023

For other people named Robert Burns, see Robert Burns (disambiguation).

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns,[a] was a Scottish poet and 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 in a "light Scots dialect" of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.

Robert Burns
Portrait of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth, 1787, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Born(1759-01-25)25 January 1759
Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland
Died21 July 1796(1796-07-21) (aged 37)
Dumfries, Scotland
Resting placeBurns Mausoleum, Dumfries
NicknameRabbie Burns
Occupation
  • Poet
  • lyricist
  • farmer
  • excise-man
LanguageScots language
NationalityScottish
Literary movementRomanticism
Notable works
SpouseJean Armour
Children12
Parents
Signature

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose", "A Man's a Man for A' That", "To a Louse", "To a Mouse", "The Battle of Sherramuir", "Tam o' Shanter" and "Ae Fond Kiss".

Life and background

Ayrshire

 
The Burns Cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire
 
Inside the Burns Cottage

Alloway

Burns was born two miles (3 km) south of Ayr, in Alloway, the eldest of the seven children of William Burnes (1721–1784), a self-educated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and Agnes Broun (1732–1820), the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer.[3][4][5]

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. William Burnes sold the house and took the tenancy of the 70-acre (280,000 m2) Mount Oliphant farm, southeast of Alloway. Here Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, and the severe manual labour of the farm left its traces in a weakened constitution.[6]

He was given irregular schooling and a lot of his education was with his father, who taught his children reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history and also wrote for them A Manual of Christian Belief.[6] He was also taught and tutored by the young teacher John Murdoch (1747–1824), who opened an "adventure school" in Alloway in 1763 and taught Latin, French, and mathematics to both Robert and his brother Gilbert (1760–1827) from 1765 to 1768 until Murdoch left the parish. After a few years of home education, Burns was sent to Dalrymple Parish School in mid-1772 before returning at harvest time to full-time farm labouring until 1773, when he was sent to lodge with Murdoch for three weeks to study grammar, French, and Latin.

By the age of 15, Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant. During the harvest of 1774, he was assisted by Nelly Kilpatrick (1759–1820), who inspired his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass". In 1775, he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald, where he met Peggy Thompson (born 1762), to whom he wrote two songs, "Now Westlin' Winds" and "I Dream'd I Lay".

Tarbolton

Despite his ability and character, William Burnes was consistently unfortunate, and migrated with his large family from farm to farm without ever being able to improve his circumstances.[6] At Whitsun, 1777, he removed his large family from the unfavourable conditions of Mount Oliphant to the 130-acre (0.53 km2) farm at Lochlea, near Tarbolton, where they stayed until William Burnes's death in 1784. Subsequently, the family became integrated into the community of Tarbolton. To his father's disapproval, Robert joined a country dancing school in 1779 and, with Gilbert, formed the Tarbolton Bachelors' Club the following year. His earliest existing letters date from this time, when he began making romantic overtures to Alison Begbie (b. 1762). In spite of four songs written for her and a suggestion that he was willing to marry her, she rejected him.

Robert Burns was initiated into the Masonic lodge St David, Tarbolton, on 4 July 1781, when he was 22. In December 1781, Burns moved temporarily to Irvine to learn to become a flax-dresser, but during the workers' celebrations for New Year 1781/1782 (which included Burns as a participant) the flax shop caught fire and was burnt to the ground. This venture accordingly came to an end, and Burns went home to Lochlea farm.[6] During this time he met and befriended Richard Brown, who encouraged him to become a poet. He continued to write poems and songs and began a commonplace book in 1783, while his father fought a legal dispute with his landlord. The case went to the Court of Session, and Burnes was upheld in January 1784, a fortnight before he died.

Mauchline

Robert and Gilbert made an ineffectual struggle to keep on the farm, but after its failure they moved to Mossgiel Farm, near Mauchline, in March, which they maintained with an uphill fight for the next four years. In mid-1784 Burns came to know a group of girls known collectively as The Belles of Mauchline, one of whom was Jean Armour, the daughter of a stonemason from Mauchline.

Love affairs

His first child, Elizabeth "Bess" Burns, was born to his mother's servant, Elizabeth Paton, while he was embarking on a relationship with Jean Armour, who became pregnant with twins in March 1786. Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to Jean, but her father "was in the greatest distress, and fainted away". To avoid disgrace, her parents sent her to live with her uncle in Paisley. Although Armour's father initially forbade it, they were married in 1788.[7] Armour bore him nine children, three of whom survived infancy.[citation needed]

Burns had encountered financial difficulties due to his lack of success as a farmer. In order to make enough money to support a family, he accepted a job offer from Patrick Douglas, an absentee landowner who lived in Cumnock, to work on his sugar plantations near Port Antonio, Jamaica. Douglas' plantations were managed by his brother Charles, and the job offer, which had a salary of £30 per annum, entailed working in Jamaica as a "book-keeper", whose duties included serving as an assistant overseer to the Black slaves on the plantations (Burns himself described the position as being "a poor Negro driver").[8] The position, which was for a single man, would entail Burns living on a plantation in rustic conditions, as it was unlikely a book keeper would be housed in the plantation's great house.[9][10] Apologists have argued in Burns' defence that in 1786, the Scottish abolitionist movement was just beginning to be broadly active.[11][12] Burns's authorship of "The Slave's Lament", a 1792 poem argued as an example of his abolitionist views, is disputed. His name is absent from any abolitionist petition written in Scotland during the period, and according to academic Lisa Williams, Burns "is strangely silent on the question of chattel slavery compared to other contemporary poets. Perhaps this was due to his government position, severe limitations on free speech at the time or his association with beneficiaries of the slave trade system".[13][14]

Around the same time, Burns fell in love with a woman named Mary Campbell, whom he had seen in church while he was still living in Tarbolton. She was born near Dunoon and had lived in Campbeltown before moving to work in Ayrshire. He dedicated the poems "The Highland Lassie O", "Highland Mary", and "To Mary in Heaven" to her. His song "Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia's shore?" suggests that they planned to emigrate to Jamaica together. Their relationship has been the subject of much conjecture, and it has been suggested that on 14 May 1786 they exchanged Bibles and plighted their troth over the Water of Fail in a traditional form of marriage. Soon afterwards Mary Campbell left her work in Ayrshire, went to the seaport of Greenock, and sailed home to her parents in Campbeltown.[9][10] In October 1786, Mary and her father sailed from Campbeltown to visit her brother in Greenock. Her brother fell ill with typhus, which she also caught while nursing him. She died of typhus on 20 or 21 October 1786 and was buried there.[10]

Kilmarnock volume

 
Title page of the Kilmarnock Edition

As Burns lacked the funds to pay for his passage to Jamaica, Gavin Hamilton suggested that he should "publish his poems in the mean time by subscription, as a likely way of getting a little money to provide him more liberally in necessaries for Jamaica." On 3 April Burns sent proposals for publishing his Scotch Poems to John Wilson, a printer in Kilmarnock, who published these proposals on 14 April 1786, on the same day that Jean Armour's father tore up the paper in which Burns attested his marriage to Jean. To obtain a certificate that he was a free bachelor, Burns agreed on 25 June to stand for rebuke in the Mauchline kirk for three Sundays. He transferred his share in Mossgiel farm to his brother Gilbert on 22 July, and on 30 July wrote to tell his friend John Richmond that, "Armour has got a warrant to throw me in jail until I can find a warrant for an enormous sum ... I am wandering from one friend's house to another."[15]

On 31 July 1786 John Wilson published the volume of works by Robert Burns, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect.[16] Known as the Kilmarnock volume, it sold for 3 shillings and contained much of his best writing, including "The Twa Dogs" (which features Luath, his Border Collie),[17] "Address to the Deil", "Halloween", "The Cotter's Saturday Night", "To a Mouse", "Epitaph for James Smith", and "To a Mountain Daisy", many of which had been written at Mossgiel farm. The success of the work was immediate, and soon he was known across the country.

Burns postponed his planned emigration to Jamaica on 1 September, and was at Mossgiel two days later when he learnt that Jean Armour had given birth to twins. On 4 September Thomas Blacklock wrote a letter expressing admiration for the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume, and suggesting an enlarged second edition.[16] A copy of it was passed to Burns, who later recalled, "I had taken the last farewell of my few friends, my chest was on the road to Greenock; I had composed the last song I should ever measure in Scotland – 'The Gloomy night is gathering fast' – when a letter from Dr Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes, by opening new prospects to my poetic ambition. The Doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause I had not dared to hope. His opinion that I would meet with encouragement in Edinburgh for a second edition, fired me so much, that away I posted for that city, without a single acquaintance, or a single letter of introduction."[18]

Edinburgh

 
Burns statue by David Watson Stevenson (1898) in Bernard Street, Leith
 
This manuscript copy of 'Address to Edinburgh' written in Burns' hand, was sent in 1787 to Lady Henrietta Don (nee Cunningham), sister to Earl of Glencairn. The manuscript is now part of the Laing Collection at the University of Edinburgh.
 
Alexander Nasmyth, Robert Burns (1828)

On 27 November 1786 Burns borrowed a pony and set out for Edinburgh. On 14 December William Creech issued subscription bills for the first Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect, which was published on 17 April 1787. Within a week of this event, Burns had sold his copyright to Creech for 100 guineas.[16] For the edition, Creech commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to paint the oval bust-length portrait now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which was engraved to provide a frontispiece for the book. Nasmyth had come to know Burns and his fresh and appealing image has become the basis for almost all subsequent representations of the poet.[19] In Edinburgh, he was received as an equal by the city's men of letters—including Dugald Stewart, Robertson, Blair and others—and was a guest at aristocratic gatherings, where he bore himself with unaffected dignity. Here he encountered, and made a lasting impression on, the 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 are presented in Mr Nasmyth's picture but to me it conveys 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.][20]

The new edition of his poems brought Burns £400. His stay in the city also resulted in some lifelong friendships, among which were those with Lord Glencairn, and Frances Anna Dunlop (1730–1815),[20] who became his occasional sponsor and with whom he corresponded for many years until a rift developed. He embarked on a relationship with the separated Agnes "Nancy" McLehose (1758–1841), with whom he exchanged passionate letters under pseudonyms (Burns called himself "Sylvander" and Nancy "Clarinda"). When it became clear that Nancy would not be easily seduced into a physical relationship, Burns moved on to Jenny Clow (1766–1792), Nancy's domestic servant, who bore him a son, Robert Burns Clow, in 1788. He also had an affair with a servant girl, Margaret "May" Cameron. His relationship with Nancy concluded in 1791 with a final meeting in Edinburgh before she sailed to Jamaica for what turned out to be a short-lived reconciliation with her estranged husband. Before she left, he sent her the manuscript of "Ae Fond Kiss" as a farewell.[citation needed]

In Edinburgh, in early 1787, he met James Johnson, a struggling music engraver and music seller with a love of old Scots songs and a determination to preserve them. Burns shared this interest and became an enthusiastic contributor to The Scots Musical Museum. The first volume was published in 1787 and included three songs by Burns. He contributed 40 songs to volume two, and he ended up responsible for about a third of the 600 songs in the whole collection, as well as making a considerable editorial contribution. The final volume was published in 1803.[21]

Dumfriesshire

Ellisland Farm

Main article: Ellisland Farm, Dumfries
 
The River Nith at Ellisland Farm.

On his return from Edinburgh in February 1788, he resumed his relationship with Jean Armour and took a lease on Ellisland Farm, Dumfriesshire, settling there in June. He also trained as a gauger or exciseman in case farming continued to be unsuccessful. He was appointed to duties in Customs and Excise in 1789 and eventually gave up the farm in 1791. Meanwhile, in November 1790, he had written his masterpiece, the narrative poem "Tam O' Shanter". The Ellisland farm beside the river Nith, now holds a unique collection of Burns's books, artefacts, and manuscripts and is mostly preserved as when Burns and his young family lived there.[citation needed] About this time he was offered and declined an appointment in London on the staff of The Star newspaper,[22] and refused to become a candidate for a newly created Chair of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh,[22] although influential friends offered to support his claims.[20] He did however accept membership of the Royal Company of Archers in 1792.[23]

 
Ellisland Farm in the time of Robert Burns

Lyricist

After giving up his farm, he removed to Dumfries. It was at this time that, being requested to write lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland, he responded by contributing over 100 songs.[20] He made major contributions to George Thomson's A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice as well as to James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum.[citation needed] Arguably his claim to immortality chiefly rests on these volumes, which placed him in the front rank of lyric poets.[20] As a songwriter he provided his own lyrics, sometimes adapted from traditional words. He put words to Scottish folk melodies and airs which he collected, and composed his own arrangements of the music including modifying tunes or recreating melodies on the basis of fragments. In letters he explained that he preferred simplicity, relating songs to spoken language which should be sung in traditional ways. The original instruments would be fiddle and the guitar of the period which was akin to a cittern, but the transcription of songs for piano has resulted in them usually being performed in classical concert or music hall styles.[24] At the 3 week Celtic Connections festival Glasgow each January, Burns songs are often performed with both fiddle and guitar.

Thomson as a publisher commissioned arrangements of "Scottish, Welsh and Irish Airs" by such eminent composers of the day as Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, with new lyrics. The contributors of lyrics included Burns. While such arrangements had wide popular appeal,[25][26][27][28] Beethoven's music was more advanced and difficult to play than Thomson intended.[29][30]

Burns described how he had to master singing the tune before he composed the words:

 
Burns House in Dumfries, Scotland

My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment, correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then chuse my theme, begin one stanza, when that is composed—which is generally the most difficult part of the business—I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom, humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. when I feel my Muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper, swinging, at intervals, on the hind-legs of my elbow chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my, pen goes.

Burns also worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs, sometimes revising, expanding, and adapting them. One of the better known of these collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia (the title is not Burns's), a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century. At Dumfries, he wrote his world famous song "A Man's a Man for A' That", which was based on the writings in The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, one of the chief political theoreticians of the American Revolution. Burns sent the poem anonymously in 1795 to the Glasgow Courier. He was also a radical for reform and wrote poems for democracy, such as – "Parcel of Rogues to the Nation" and the "Rights of Women".

Many of Burns's most famous poems are songs with the music based upon older traditional songs. For example, "Auld Lang Syne" is set to the traditional tune "Can Ye Labour Lea", "A Red, Red Rose" is set to the tune of "Major Graham" and "The Battle of Sherramuir" is set to the "Cameronian Rant".

Failing health and death

 
The death room of Robert Burns
 
Robert Burns Mausoleum at St Michael's churchyard in Dumfries

Burns's worldly prospects were perhaps better than they had ever been but he alienated some acquaintances by freely expressing sympathy with the French,[31] and American Revolutions, for the advocates of democratic reform and votes for all men and the Society of the Friends of the People which advocated Parliamentary Reform. His political views came to the notice of his employers, to which he pleaded his innocence. Burns met other radicals at the Globe Inn Dumfries. As an Exciseman he felt compelled to join the Royal Dumfries Volunteers in March 1795.[32] He lived in Dumfries in a two-storey red sandstone house on Mill Hole Brae, now Burns Street. The home is now a museum. He went on long journeys on horseback, often in harsh weather conditions as an Excise Supervisor. He was kept very busy doing reports, father of four young children, song collector and songwriter. As his health began to give way, he aged prematurely and fell into fits of despondency.[31] The habits of intemperance (alleged mainly by temperance activist James Currie)[33] are said to have aggravated his long-standing possible rheumatic heart condition.[34]

On the morning of 21 July 1796, Burns died in Dumfries, at the age of 37. The funeral took place on Monday 25 July 1796, the day that his son Maxwell was born. He was at first buried in the far corner of St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries; a simple "slab of freestone" was erected as his gravestone by Jean Armour, which some felt insulting to his memory.[35] His body was eventually moved to its final location in the same cemetery, the Burns Mausoleum, in September 1817.[36] The body of his widow Jean Armour was buried with his in 1834.[34]

Armour had taken steps to secure his personal property, partly by liquidating two promissory notes amounting to fifteen pounds sterling (about 1,100 pounds at 2009 prices).[37] The family went to the Court of Session in 1798 with a plan to support his surviving children by publishing a four-volume edition of his complete works and a biography written by James Currie. Subscriptions were raised to meet the initial cost of publication, which was in the hands of Thomas Cadell and William Davies in London and William Creech, bookseller in Edinburgh.[38] Hogg records that fund-raising for Burns's family was embarrassingly slow, and it took several years to accumulate significant funds through the efforts of John Syme and Alexander Cunningham.[34]

Burns was posthumously given the freedom of the town of Dumfries.[33] Hogg records that Burns was given the freedom of the Burgh of Dumfries on 4 June 1787, 9 years before his death, and was also made an Honorary Burgess of Dumfries.[39]

Through his five surviving children (of 12 born), Burns has over 900 living descendants as of 2019.[40]

Literary style

Burns's style is marked by spontaneity, directness, and sincerity, and ranges from the tender intensity of some of his lyrics through the humour of "Tam o' Shanter" and the satire of "Holy Willie's Prayer" and "The Holy Fair".[20]

Burns's poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity with and knowledge of Classical, Biblical, and English literature, as well as the Scottish Makar tradition.[41] Burns was skilled in writing not only in the Scots language but also in the Scottish English dialect of the English language. Some of his works, such as "Love and Liberty" (also known as "The Jolly Beggars"), are written in both Scots and English for various effects.[42]

His themes included republicanism (he lived during the French Revolutionary period) and Radicalism, which he expressed covertly in "Scots Wha Hae", Scottish patriotism, anticlericalism, class inequalities, gender roles, commentary on the Scottish Kirk of his time, Scottish cultural identity, poverty, sexuality, and the beneficial aspects of popular socialising (carousing, Scotch whisky, folk songs, and so forth).[43]

 
Statue of Burns in Dumfries town centre, unveiled in 1882

The strong emotional highs and lows associated with many of Burns's poems have led some, such as Burns biographer Robert Crawford,[44] to suggest that he suffered from manic depression—a hypothesis that has been supported by analysis of various samples of his handwriting. Burns himself referred to suffering from episodes of what he called "blue devilism". The National Trust for Scotland has downplayed the suggestion on the grounds that evidence is insufficient to support the claim.[45]

Influence

Britain

Burns is generally classified as a proto-Romantic poet, and he influenced William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley greatly. His direct literary influences in the use of Scots in poetry were Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson. The Edinburgh literati worked to sentimentalise Burns during his life and after his death, dismissing his education by calling him a "heaven-taught ploughman". Burns influenced later Scottish writers, especially Hugh MacDiarmid, who fought to dismantle what he felt had become a sentimental cult that dominated Scottish literature.

Canada

Burns had a significant influence on Alexander McLachlan[46] and some influence on Robert Service. While this may not be so obvious in Service's English verse, which is Kiplingesque, it is more readily apparent in his Scots verse.[47]

Scottish Canadians have embraced Robert Burns as a kind of patron poet and mark his birthday with festivities. 'Robbie Burns Day' is celebrated from Newfoundland and Labrador[48] to Nanaimo.[49] Every year, Canadian newspapers publish biographies of the poet,[50] listings of local events[51] and buffet menus.[52] Universities mark the date in a range of ways: McMaster University library organized a special collection[53] and Simon Fraser University's Centre for Scottish Studies organized a marathon reading of Burns's poetry.[54][55] Senator Heath Macquarrie quipped of Canada's first Prime Minister that "While the lovable [Robbie] Burns went in for wine, women and song, his fellow Scot, John A. did not chase women and was not musical!"[56] 'Gung Haggis Fat Choy' is a hybrid of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day, celebrated in Vancouver since the late 1990s.[57][58]

United States

 
Statue of Burns and Luath, his Border Collie,[59] in Winthrop Square, Boston, Massachusetts. It was moved back to its original location in the Back Bay Fens in 2019

In January 1864, President Abraham Lincoln was invited to attend a Robert Burns celebration by Robert Crawford; and if unable to attend, send a toast. Lincoln composed a toast.[60]

An example of Burns's literary influence in the US is seen in the choice by novelist John Steinbeck of the title of his 1937 novel, Of Mice and Men, taken from a line in the second-to-last stanza of "To a Mouse": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Burns's influence on American vernacular poets such as James Whitcomb Riley and Frank Lebby Stanton has been acknowledged by their biographers.[61] When asked for the source of his greatest creative inspiration, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan selected Burns's 1794 song "A Red, Red Rose" as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life.[62]

The author J. D. Salinger used protagonist Holden Caulfield's misinterpretation of Burns's poem "Comin' Through the Rye" as his title and a main interpretation of Caulfield's grasping to his childhood in his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. The poem, actually about a rendezvous, is thought by Caulfield to be about saving people from falling out of childhood.[63]

Russia

Burns became the "people's poet" of Russia. In Imperial Russia Burns was translated into Russian and became a source of inspiration for the ordinary, oppressed Russian people. In Soviet Russia, he was elevated as the archetypal poet of the people. As a great admirer of the egalitarian ethos behind the American and French Revolutions who expressed his own egalitarianism in poems such as his "Birthday Ode for George Washington" or his "Is There for Honest Poverty" (commonly known as "A Man's a Man for a' that"), Burns was well placed for endorsement by the Communist regime as a "progressive" artist. A new translation of Burns begun in 1924 by Samuil Marshak proved enormously popular, selling over 600,000 copies.[64] The USSR honoured Burns with a commemorative stamp in 1956. He remains popular in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.[65]

Honours

Landmarks and organisations

 
Ellisland Farm c. 1900
 
Statue in Confederate Park, by the Robert Burns Association of Jacksonville, Florida

Burns clubs have been founded worldwide. The first one, known as The Mother Club, was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known Burns.[66] The club set its original objectives as "To cherish the name of Robert Burns; to foster a love of his writings, and generally to encourage an interest in the Scottish language and literature." The club also continues to have local charitable work as a priority.[67]

Burns's birthplace in Alloway is now a National Trust for Scotland property called the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. It includes: the humble Burns Cottage where he was born and spent the first years of his life, a modern museum building which houses more than 5,000 Burns artefacts including his handwritten manuscripts, the historic Alloway Auld Kirk and Brig o Doon which feature in Burns's masterpiece 'Tam o Shanter', and the Burns Monument which was erected in Burns's honour and finished in 1823. His house in Dumfries is operated as the Robert Burns House, and the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries features more exhibits about his life and works. Ellisland Farm in Auldgirth, which he owned from 1788 to 1791, is maintained as a working farm with a museum and interpretation centre by the Friends of Ellisland Farm.

Significant 19th-century monuments to him stand in Alloway, Leith, and Dumfries. An early 20th-century replica of his birthplace cottage belonging to the Burns Club Atlanta stands in Atlanta, Georgia. These are part of a large list of Burns memorials and statues around the world.

Organisations include the Robert Burns Fellowship of the University of Otago in New Zealand, and the Burns Club Atlanta in the United States. Towns named after Burns include Burns, New York, and Burns, Oregon.

In the suburb of Summerhill, Dumfries, the majority of the streets have names with Burns connotations. A British Rail Standard Class 7 steam locomotive was named after him, along with a later Class 87 electric locomotive, No. 87035.[68] On 24 September 1996, Class 156 diesel unit 156433 was named The Kilmarnock Edition at Girvan station to launch the new Burns Line services between Girvan, Ayr and Kilmarnock, supported by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.[69]

 
Burns statue in Treasury Gardens, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Several streets surrounding the Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.'s Back Bay Fens in Boston, Massachusetts, were designated with Burns connotations. A life-size statue was dedicated in Burns's honour within the Back Bay Fens of the West Fenway neighbourhood in 1912. It stood until 1972 when it was relocated downtown, sparking protests from the neighbourhood, literary fans, and preservationists of Olmsted's vision for the Back Bay Fens.

There is a statue of Burns in The Octagon, Dunedin, in the same pose as the one in Dundee. Dunedin's first European settlers were Scots; Thomas Burns, a nephew of Burns, was one of Dunedin's founding fathers.

A crater on Mercury is named after Burns.

In November 2012, Burns was awarded the title Honorary Chartered Surveyor[70] by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the only posthumous membership so far granted by the institution.

The oldest statue of Burns is in the town of Camperdown, Victoria.[71] It now hosts an annual Robert Burns Scottish Festival in celebration of the statue and its history.[72]

In 2020, the Robert Burns Academy in Cumnock, East Ayrshire opened and is named after Burns as an honour of Burns having spent time living in nearby Mauchline.[73]

Stamps and currency

 
Burns stamp, USSR 1956

The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to honour Burns with a commemorative stamp, marking the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956.[74]

The UK postal service, the Royal Mail, has issued postage stamps commemorating Burns three times. In 1966, two stamps were issued, priced fourpence and one shilling and threepence, both carrying Burns's portrait. In 1996, an issue commemorating the bicentenary of his death comprised four stamps, priced 19p, 25p, 41p and 60p and including quotes from Burns's poems. On 22 January 2009, two 1st class stamps were issued by the Royal Mail to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Burns's birth.[75]

Burns was pictured on the Clydesdale Bank £5 note from 1971 to 2009.[76][77] On the reverse of the note was a vignette of a field mouse and a wild rose in reference to Burns's poem "To a Mouse". The Clydesdale Bank's notes were redesigned in 2009 and, since then, he has been pictured on the front of their £10 note.[77] In September 2007, the Bank of Scotland redesigned their banknotes to feature famous Scottish bridges. The reverse side of new £5 features Brig o' Doon, famous from Burns's poem "Tam o' Shanter", and pictures the statue of Burns at that site.[78]

In 1996, the Isle of Man issued a four-coin set of Crown (5/-) pieces on the themes of "Auld Lang Syne", Edinburgh Castle, Revenue Cutter, and Writing Poems.[79] Tristan da Cunha produced a gold £5 Bicentenary Coin.[80]

In 2009 the Royal Mint issued a commemorative two pound coin featuring a quote from "Auld Lang Syne".[81]

Musical tributes

 
Engraved version of the Alexander Nasmyth 1787 portrait

In 1976, singer Jean Redpath, in collaboration with composer Serge Hovey, started to record all of Burns's songs, with a mixture of traditional and Burns's own compositions. The project ended when Hovey died, after seven of the planned twenty-two volumes were completed. Redpath also recorded four cassettes of Burns's songs (re-issued as 3 CDs) for the Scots Musical Museum.[82]

In 1996, a musical about Burns's life called Red Red Rose won third place at a competition for new musicals in Denmark. Robert Burns was played by John Barrowman. On 25 January 2008, a musical play about the love affair between Robert Burns and Nancy McLehose entitled Clarinda premiered in Edinburgh before touring Scotland.[83][citation needed] The plan was that Clarinda would make its American premiere in Atlantic Beach, FL, at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre on 25 January 2013.[84] Eddi Reader has released two albums, Sings the Songs of Robert Burns and The Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition, about the work of the poet.

Alfred B. Street wrote the words and Henry Tucker wrote the music for a song called Our Own Robbie Burns[85] in 1856.

Burns suppers

Main article: Burns supper
 
"Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" – cutting the haggis at a Burns supper

Burns Night, in effect a second national day, is celebrated on Burns's birthday, 25 January, with Burns suppers around the world, and is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day, St. Andrew's Day. The first Burns supper in The Mother Club in Greenock was held on what was thought to be his birthday on 29 January 1802; in 1803 it was discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was 25 January 1759.[67]

The format of Burns suppers has changed little since. The basic format starts with a general welcome and announcements, followed with the Selkirk Grace. After the grace comes the piping and cutting of the haggis, when Burns's famous "Address to a Haggis" is read and the haggis is cut open. The event usually allows for people to start eating just after the haggis is presented. At the end of the meal, a series of toasts, often including a 'Toast to the Lassies', and replies are made. This is when the toast to "the immortal memory", an overview of Burns's life and work, is given. The event usually concludes with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne".

Greatest Scot

In 2009, STV ran a television series and public vote on who was "The Greatest Scot" of all time. Robert Burns won, narrowly beating William Wallace.[86] A bust of Burns is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling.

Crater

A crater on the planet Mercury has been named after Burns.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Burns is also known by various other names and epithets. These include Rabbie Burns, the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire, the Ploughman Poet, Scotland's favourite son, Robden of Solway Firth, and simply the Bard.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ O'Hagan, A: "The People's Poet 25 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine", The Guardian, 19 January 2008.
  2. ^ "Scotland's National Bard". scottishexecutive.gov.uk. Scottish Executive. 25 January 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2009.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Hall of Fame: Robert Burns (1759–1796)". National Records of Scotland. 31 May 2013. from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Burnes, William". The Burns Encyclopedia. from the original on 23 April 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  5. ^ . The Robert Burns World Federation. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d Cousin 1910, p. 62.
  7. ^ "Mauchline kirk session records, National Archives of Scotland". 'The Legacy of Robert Burns' feature on the National Archives of Scotland website. National Archives of Scotland. 1 July 2009. from the original on 8 October 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
  8. ^ Crawford, Robert (30 April 2011). The Bard. Random House. pp. 222–223. ISBN 9781446466407. from the original on 12 September 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2018.; Leask, Nigel (25 June 2009). "Burns and the Poetics of Abolition". In Carruthers, Gerard (ed.). Edinburgh Companion to Robert Burns. Edinburgh University Press. p. 51. ISBN 9780748636501.; "Letter of Charles Douglas to Patrick Douglas dated Port Antonio 19th June 1786 (page 3 of 3) – Burns Scotland". from the original on 2 August 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  9. ^ a b Burns 1993, p. 19
  10. ^ a b c . Famous Sons and Daughters of Greenock. Nostalgic Greenock. Archived from the original on 20 February 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  11. ^ . Robert Burns History. Scotland.org. 13 January 2004. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  12. ^ "Folkin' For Jamaica: Sly, Robbie and Robert Burns". The Play Ethic. 1 January 2009. from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  13. ^ Mullen, Stephen (4 March 2016). "The myth of Scottish slaves". Sceptical Scot. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  14. ^ Williams, Lisa (9 October 2016). "Remaking our histories: Scotland, Slavery and Empire". National Galleries Scotland. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  15. ^ Burns 1993, pp. 19–20
  16. ^ a b c Burns 1993, p. 20
  17. ^ "The Twa Dogs" 6 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine – National Trust for Scotland
  18. ^ Rev. Thos. Thomson (1856). Chambers, R (ed.). "Significant Scots – Thomas Blacklock". Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Blackie and Son. from the original on 3 February 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  19. ^ National Galleries of Scotland. "Artists A-Z − − N − Artists A-Z − Online Collection − Collection − National Galleries of Scotland". from the original on 12 September 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Cousin 1910, p. 63.
  21. ^ "Robert Burns Country: The Burns Encyclopedia: Johnson, James (c. 1750 — 1811)". www.robertburns.org. from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  22. ^ a b Robert Burns: "Poetry – Poems – Poets 12 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine." Retrieved on 24 September 2010
  23. ^ "Diploma of the Royal Company of Archers". Burns Scotland. from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  24. ^ David Sibbald. "Robert Burns the Song Writer". from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  25. ^ "Folksong Arrangements by Haydn / Folksong Arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven / Projects / Home – Trio van Beethoven". from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  26. ^ "Thomson's Select Melodies of Scotland, Ireland and Wales (Thomson, George)". from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  27. ^ "25 Schottische Lieder, Op.108 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)". from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  28. ^ "12 Schottische Lieder, WoO 156 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)". from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  29. ^ "Ludwig and Rabbie: a partnership that ended in tears". 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine The Independent, 2 December 2005. Retrieved 23 December 2015
  30. ^ Beethoven-Haus Bonn (1 April 2002). "Beethoven-Haus Bonn". from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  31. ^ a b Cousin 1910, p. 64.
  32. ^ "MS: 'The Dumfries Volunteers' – Robert Burns Birthplace Museum". from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  33. ^ a b c Hogg, PS (2008). Robert Burns. The Patriot Bard. Edinburgh : Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84596-412-2. p. 321.
  34. ^ "Thomas Hamilton, architect – Joe Rock's Research Pages". from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  35. ^ "Robert Burns Mausoleum". Undiscovered Scotland. from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  36. ^ "Testament Dative and Inventory of Robert Burns, 1796, Dumfries Commissary Court (National Archives of Scotland CC5/6/18, pp. 74–75)". ScotlandsPeople website. National Archives of Scotland. from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
  37. ^ "Appointment of judicial factor for Robert Burns's children, Court of Session records (National Archives of Scotland CS97/101/15), 1798–1801". 'The Legacy of Robert Burns' feature on the National Archives of Scotland website. National Archives of Scotland. 1 July 2009. from the original on 8 October 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
  38. ^ Hogg, PS (2008). Robert Burns. The Patriot Bard. Edinburgh : Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84596-412-2. p. 154.
  39. ^ "Burness Genealogy and Family History – Person Page". from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  40. ^ Robert Burns: "Literary Style 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine." Retrieved on 24 September 2010
  41. ^ Robert Burns: "some hae meat 8 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine" Retrieved on 24 September 2010
  42. ^ Red Star Cafe: "to the Kibble 12 September 2022 at the Wayback Machine" Retrieved on 24 September 2010
  43. ^ Rumens, C (16 January 2009). "The Bard, By Robert Crawford". Books. London: The Independent. from the original on 18 January 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  44. ^ Watson, J (7 June 2009). "Bard in the hand: Trust accused of hiding Burns's mental illness". Scotland on Sunday. from the original on 10 June 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  45. ^ Robert Burns and Friends (Essays by W. Ormiston Roy Fellows presented to G. Ross Roy), Patrick Scott & Kenneth Simson, eds., Book Surge Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1439270974, Chapter "Alexander McLachlan: 'The Robert Burns' of Canada", contribution of Edward J. Cowan, pp. 131–149
  46. ^ Burness, Edwina (January 1986). "Burness, Edwina (1986) "The Influence of Burns and Fergusson on the War Poetry of Robert Service," Studies in Scottish Literature:Vol. 21: Iss. 1". Studies in Scottish Literature. 21 (1). from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  47. ^ . The Western Start. 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  48. ^ "Robbie Burns' life celebrated with poetry and music". Nanaimo Bulletin. 25 January 2013. from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  49. ^ "Ian Hunter: Robbie Burns was the everyman's poet". National Post. 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  50. ^ "Regina weekend round up: Robbie Burns Day". Metro News.ca (Regina). 25 January 2013. from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  51. ^ "Robbie Burns buffet menu". Canadian Living. 25 January 2013. from the original on 28 April 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  52. ^ . McMaster University Library. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  53. ^ "Fans of Robbie Burns' poetry at SFU attempt to break their own world record". Global TV (BC). 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  54. ^ . Simon Fraser University. January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  55. ^ "In Sir John A.'s Footsteps: The Virtual Tour". City of Kingston (Ontario). n.d. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  56. ^ "Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Misadventures in Multiculturalism". from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  57. ^ "What do you get when you fuse Robbie Burns to Chinese Canadians?". Ugly Chinese Canadian.com. 17 January 2013. from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  58. ^ "The Twa Dogs" 6 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine – National Trust for Scotland
  59. ^ Crawford, Robert. "The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress." Robert Crawford to Abraham Lincoln, Saturday, 23 January 1864 (Invitation to attend Robert Burns celebration). 23 January 1864. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/malquery.html 19 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 20 January 2013). Lincoln's toast: see Collected Works, VIII, 237.
  60. ^ See, e.g., Paul Stevenson, "Stanton—the Writer with a Heart" in Atlanta Constitution, 1925 January 18, p. 1; republished by Perry, LL; Wightman, MF (1938), Frank Lebby Stanton: Georgia's First Post Laureate, Atlanta: Georgia State Department of Education, pp. 8–14
  61. ^ Michaels, S (6 October 2008). "Bob Dylan: Robert Burns is my biggest inspiration". The Guardian. London. from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2009. Dylan has revealed his greatest inspiration is Scotland's favourite son, the Bard of Ayrshire, the 18th-century poet known to most as Rabbie Burns. Dylan selected A Red, Red Rose, written by Burns in 1794.
  62. ^ "J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye". Sparknotes. from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2010. When [Holden] tries to explain why he hates school, she accuses him of not liking anything. He tells her his fantasy of being "the catcher in the rye," a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff. Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the poem that he took the image from: Robert Burns's poem says "if a body meet a body, coming through the rye," not "catch a body."
  63. ^ . Standrews.com. 27 January 1990. Archived from the original on 11 December 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  64. ^ Trew, J (10 April 2005). "From Rabbie with love". Scotsman.com Heritage & Culture. from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  65. ^ Gordon, Carl (7 May 1980). "Oldest Burns club opens its doors to the lassies". The Glasgow Herald. p. 4. from the original on 12 September 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  66. ^ a b . The Robert Burns World Federation Limited. Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  67. ^ Poet in motion – Robert Burns takes to the rails for the third time Rail issue 282 3 July 1996 page 52
  68. ^ Naming Notes Rail issue 290 23 October 1996 page 53
  69. ^ "Posthumous recognition of Burns, the land surveyor". RICS. 19 November 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  70. ^ "Robbie Burns Day: 10 facts you never knew". Simcoe. 21 January 2015. from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  71. ^ . Victorian Government. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  72. ^ "Burns House Museum, Mauchline – Museums". from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  73. ^ Robert Burns World Federation Limited Burns chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 3 p.27. Burns Federation, 1995
  74. ^ "Stamps show great British designs". BBC. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  75. ^ "Current Banknotes : Clydesdale Bank". The Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers. from the original on 3 October 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  76. ^ a b "Clydesdale launches Homecoming bank notes". The Herald. 14 January 2009. from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  77. ^ "Current Banknotes : Bank of Scotland". The Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers. from the original on 3 October 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
  78. ^ Pobjoy Mint 25 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved : 27 November 2011
  79. ^ £5 Coin 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved : 27 November 2011
  80. ^ . Archived from the original on 18 December 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  81. ^ "THE SONGS OF ROBERT BURNS from the Scots Musical Museum". Jean Redpath Sings. from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  82. ^ . Clarindathemusical.com. Archived from the original on 9 October 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  83. ^ "Clarinda – The Musical – United States Premiere!". abettheatre.com. from the original on 29 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  84. ^ "Our Own Robbie Burns (Tucker, Henry L.)". from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  85. ^ Robert Burns voted Greatest Scot 24 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine STV. Retrieved 10 December 2010.

Bibliography

External links

Biographical information   Works by or about Robert Burns at Wikisource

  Quotations related to Robert Burns at Wikiquote

  Media related to Robert Burns at Wikimedia Commons

  • Robert Burns website at National Library of Scotland
  • Legacy of Robert Burns 8 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine at National Archives of Scotland
  • "Archival material relating to Robert Burns". UK National Archives.  
  • Guide to Robert Burns collection at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
  • Works by Robert Burns at Project Gutenberg
  • Works by or about Robert Burns at Internet Archive
  • Works by Robert Burns at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  
  • Works by Robert Burns at Open Library  
  • Robert Burns at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
  • Modern English translations of poems by Robert Burns
  • Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, p. 57
  • Robert Burns at the British Library
  • To Robert Burns historical marker near Burns Cottage in Atlanta, Georgia
  • The Papers of Robert Burns at Dartmouth College Library


May 06, 2023
robert, burns, other, people, named, disambiguation, january, 1759, july, 1796, also, known, familiarly, rabbie, burns, scottish, poet, lyricist, widely, regarded, national, poet, scotland, celebrated, worldwide, best, known, poets, have, written, scots, langu. For other people named Robert Burns see Robert Burns disambiguation Robert Burns 25 January 1759 21 July 1796 also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns a was a Scottish poet and 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 in a light Scots dialect of English accessible to an audience beyond Scotland He also wrote in standard English and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest Robert BurnsPortrait of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth 1787 Scottish National Portrait Gallery Born 1759 01 25 25 January 1759Alloway Ayrshire ScotlandDied21 July 1796 1796 07 21 aged 37 Dumfries ScotlandResting placeBurns Mausoleum DumfriesNicknameRabbie BurnsOccupationPoet lyricist farmer excise manLanguageScots languageNationalityScottishLiterary movementRomanticismNotable works Auld Lang Syne To a Mouse A Man s a Man for A That Ae Fond Kiss Scots Wha Hae Tam O Shanter Halloween The Battle of Sherramuir SpouseJean ArmourChildren12ParentsWilliam Burnes Agnes BrounSignatureHe is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV As well as making original compositions Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland often revising or adapting them His poem and song Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay the last day of the year and Scots Wha Hae served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include A Red Red Rose A Man s a Man for A That To a Louse To a Mouse The Battle of Sherramuir Tam o Shanter and Ae Fond Kiss Contents 1 Life and background 1 1 Ayrshire 1 1 1 Alloway 1 1 2 Tarbolton 1 1 3 Mauchline 1 1 4 Love affairs 1 1 5 Kilmarnock volume 1 2 Edinburgh 1 3 Dumfriesshire 1 3 1 Ellisland Farm 1 3 2 Lyricist 1 3 3 Failing health and death 2 Literary style 3 Influence 3 1 Britain 3 2 Canada 3 3 United States 3 4 Russia 4 Honours 4 1 Landmarks and organisations 4 2 Stamps and currency 4 3 Musical tributes 4 4 Burns suppers 4 5 Greatest Scot 4 6 Crater 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 7 1 Bibliography 8 External linksLife and backgroundAyrshire This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Robert Burns news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Burns Cottage in Alloway Ayrshire Inside the Burns Cottage Alloway Burns was born two miles 3 km south of Ayr in Alloway the eldest of the seven children of William Burnes 1721 1784 a self educated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns and Agnes Broun 1732 1820 the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer 3 4 5 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 William Burnes sold the house and took the tenancy of the 70 acre 280 000 m2 Mount Oliphant farm southeast of Alloway Here Burns grew up in poverty and hardship and the severe manual labour of the farm left its traces in a weakened constitution 6 He was given irregular schooling and a lot of his education was with his father who taught his children reading writing arithmetic geography and history and also wrote for them A Manual of Christian Belief 6 He was also taught and tutored by the young teacher John Murdoch 1747 1824 who opened an adventure school in Alloway in 1763 and taught Latin French and mathematics to both Robert and his brother Gilbert 1760 1827 from 1765 to 1768 until Murdoch left the parish After a few years of home education Burns was sent to Dalrymple Parish School in mid 1772 before returning at harvest time to full time farm labouring until 1773 when he was sent to lodge with Murdoch for three weeks to study grammar French and Latin By the age of 15 Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant During the harvest of 1774 he was assisted by Nelly Kilpatrick 1759 1820 who inspired his first attempt at poetry O Once I Lov d A Bonnie Lass In 1775 he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald where he met Peggy Thompson born 1762 to whom he wrote two songs Now Westlin Winds and I Dream d I Lay Tarbolton Despite his ability and character William Burnes was consistently unfortunate and migrated with his large family from farm to farm without ever being able to improve his circumstances 6 At Whitsun 1777 he removed his large family from the unfavourable conditions of Mount Oliphant to the 130 acre 0 53 km2 farm at Lochlea near Tarbolton where they stayed until William Burnes s death in 1784 Subsequently the family became integrated into the community of Tarbolton To his father s disapproval Robert joined a country dancing school in 1779 and with Gilbert formed the Tarbolton Bachelors Club the following year His earliest existing letters date from this time when he began making romantic overtures to Alison Begbie b 1762 In spite of four songs written for her and a suggestion that he was willing to marry her she rejected him Robert Burns was initiated into the Masonic lodge St David Tarbolton on 4 July 1781 when he was 22 In December 1781 Burns moved temporarily to Irvine to learn to become a flax dresser but during the workers celebrations for New Year 1781 1782 which included Burns as a participant the flax shop caught fire and was burnt to the ground This venture accordingly came to an end and Burns went home to Lochlea farm 6 During this time he met and befriended Richard Brown who encouraged him to become a poet He continued to write poems and songs and began a commonplace book in 1783 while his father fought a legal dispute with his landlord The case went to the Court of Session and Burnes was upheld in January 1784 a fortnight before he died Mauchline Robert and Gilbert made an ineffectual struggle to keep on the farm but after its failure they moved to Mossgiel Farm near Mauchline in March which they maintained with an uphill fight for the next four years In mid 1784 Burns came to know a group of girls known collectively as The Belles of Mauchline one of whom was Jean Armour the daughter of a stonemason from Mauchline Love affairs His first child Elizabeth Bess Burns was born to his mother s servant Elizabeth Paton while he was embarking on a relationship with Jean Armour who became pregnant with twins in March 1786 Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to Jean but her father was in the greatest distress and fainted away To avoid disgrace her parents sent her to live with her uncle in Paisley Although Armour s father initially forbade it they were married in 1788 7 Armour bore him nine children three of whom survived infancy citation needed Burns had encountered financial difficulties due to his lack of success as a farmer In order to make enough money to support a family he accepted a job offer from Patrick Douglas an absentee landowner who lived in Cumnock to work on his sugar plantations near Port Antonio Jamaica Douglas plantations were managed by his brother Charles and the job offer which had a salary of 30 per annum entailed working in Jamaica as a book keeper whose duties included serving as an assistant overseer to the Black slaves on the plantations Burns himself described the position as being a poor Negro driver 8 The position which was for a single man would entail Burns living on a plantation in rustic conditions as it was unlikely a book keeper would be housed in the plantation s great house 9 10 Apologists have argued in Burns defence that in 1786 the Scottish abolitionist movement was just beginning to be broadly active 11 12 Burns s authorship of The Slave s Lament a 1792 poem argued as an example of his abolitionist views is disputed His name is absent from any abolitionist petition written in Scotland during the period and according to academic Lisa Williams Burns is strangely silent on the question of chattel slavery compared to other contemporary poets Perhaps this was due to his government position severe limitations on free speech at the time or his association with beneficiaries of the slave trade system 13 14 Around the same time Burns fell in love with a woman named Mary Campbell whom he had seen in church while he was still living in Tarbolton She was born near Dunoon and had lived in Campbeltown before moving to work in Ayrshire He dedicated the poems The Highland Lassie O Highland Mary and To Mary in Heaven to her His song Will ye go to the Indies my Mary And leave auld Scotia s shore suggests that they planned to emigrate to Jamaica together Their relationship has been the subject of much conjecture and it has been suggested that on 14 May 1786 they exchanged Bibles and plighted their troth over the Water of Fail in a traditional form of marriage Soon afterwards Mary Campbell left her work in Ayrshire went to the seaport of Greenock and sailed home to her parents in Campbeltown 9 10 In October 1786 Mary and her father sailed from Campbeltown to visit her brother in Greenock Her brother fell ill with typhus which she also caught while nursing him She died of typhus on 20 or 21 October 1786 and was buried there 10 Kilmarnock volume Title page of the Kilmarnock Edition As Burns lacked the funds to pay for his passage to Jamaica Gavin Hamilton suggested that he should publish his poems in the mean time by subscription as a likely way of getting a little money to provide him more liberally in necessaries for Jamaica On 3 April Burns sent proposals for publishing his Scotch Poems to John Wilson a printer in Kilmarnock who published these proposals on 14 April 1786 on the same day that Jean Armour s father tore up the paper in which Burns attested his marriage to Jean To obtain a certificate that he was a free bachelor Burns agreed on 25 June to stand for rebuke in the Mauchline kirk for three Sundays He transferred his share in Mossgiel farm to his brother Gilbert on 22 July and on 30 July wrote to tell his friend John Richmond that Armour has got a warrant to throw me in jail until I can find a warrant for an enormous sum I am wandering from one friend s house to another 15 On 31 July 1786 John Wilson published the volume of works by Robert Burns Poems Chiefly in the Scottish dialect 16 Known as the Kilmarnock volume it sold for 3 shillings and contained much of his best writing including The Twa Dogs which features Luath his Border Collie 17 Address to the Deil Halloween The Cotter s Saturday Night To a Mouse Epitaph for James Smith and To a Mountain Daisy many of which had been written at Mossgiel farm The success of the work was immediate and soon he was known across the country Burns postponed his planned emigration to Jamaica on 1 September and was at Mossgiel two days later when he learnt that Jean Armour had given birth to twins On 4 September Thomas Blacklock wrote a letter expressing admiration for the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume and suggesting an enlarged second edition 16 A copy of it was passed to Burns who later recalled I had taken the last farewell of my few friends my chest was on the road to Greenock I had composed the last song I should ever measure in Scotland The Gloomy night is gathering fast when a letter from Dr Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes by opening new prospects to my poetic ambition The Doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause I had not dared to hope His opinion that I would meet with encouragement in Edinburgh for a second edition fired me so much that away I posted for that city without a single acquaintance or a single letter of introduction 18 Edinburgh Burns statue by David Watson Stevenson 1898 in Bernard Street Leith This manuscript copy of Address to Edinburgh written in Burns hand was sent in 1787 to Lady Henrietta Don nee Cunningham sister to Earl of Glencairn The manuscript is now part of the Laing Collection at the University of Edinburgh Alexander Nasmyth Robert Burns 1828 On 27 November 1786 Burns borrowed a pony and set out for Edinburgh On 14 December William Creech issued subscription bills for the first Edinburgh edition of Poems Chiefly in the Scottish dialect which was published on 17 April 1787 Within a week of this event Burns had sold his copyright to Creech for 100 guineas 16 For the edition Creech commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to paint the oval bust length portrait now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery which was engraved to provide a frontispiece for the book Nasmyth had come to know Burns and his fresh and appealing image has become the basis for almost all subsequent representations of the poet 19 In Edinburgh he was received as an equal by the city s men of letters including Dugald Stewart Robertson Blair and others and was a guest at aristocratic gatherings where he bore himself with unaffected dignity Here he encountered and made a lasting impression on the 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 are presented in Mr Nasmyth s picture but to me it conveys 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 20 The new edition of his poems brought Burns 400 His stay in the city also resulted in some lifelong friendships among which were those with Lord Glencairn and Frances Anna Dunlop 1730 1815 20 who became his occasional sponsor and with whom he corresponded for many years until a rift developed He embarked on a relationship with the separated Agnes Nancy McLehose 1758 1841 with whom he exchanged passionate letters under pseudonyms Burns called himself Sylvander and Nancy Clarinda When it became clear that Nancy would not be easily seduced into a physical relationship Burns moved on to Jenny Clow 1766 1792 Nancy s domestic servant who bore him a son Robert Burns Clow in 1788 He also had an affair with a servant girl Margaret May Cameron His relationship with Nancy concluded in 1791 with a final meeting in Edinburgh before she sailed to Jamaica for what turned out to be a short lived reconciliation with her estranged husband Before she left he sent her the manuscript of Ae Fond Kiss as a farewell citation needed In Edinburgh in early 1787 he met James Johnson a struggling music engraver and music seller with a love of old Scots songs and a determination to preserve them Burns shared this interest and became an enthusiastic contributor to The Scots Musical Museum The first volume was published in 1787 and included three songs by Burns He contributed 40 songs to volume two and he ended up responsible for about a third of the 600 songs in the whole collection as well as making a considerable editorial contribution The final volume was published in 1803 21 Dumfriesshire Ellisland Farm Main article Ellisland Farm Dumfries The River Nith at Ellisland Farm On his return from Edinburgh in February 1788 he resumed his relationship with Jean Armour and took a lease on Ellisland Farm Dumfriesshire settling there in June He also trained as a gauger or exciseman in case farming continued to be unsuccessful He was appointed to duties in Customs and Excise in 1789 and eventually gave up the farm in 1791 Meanwhile in November 1790 he had written his masterpiece the narrative poem Tam O Shanter The Ellisland farm beside the river Nith now holds a unique collection of Burns s books artefacts and manuscripts and is mostly preserved as when Burns and his young family lived there citation needed About this time he was offered and declined an appointment in London on the staff of The Star newspaper 22 and refused to become a candidate for a newly created Chair of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh 22 although influential friends offered to support his claims 20 He did however accept membership of the Royal Company of Archers in 1792 23 Ellisland Farm in the time of Robert Burns Lyricist After giving up his farm he removed to Dumfries It was at this time that being requested to write lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland he responded by contributing over 100 songs 20 He made major contributions to George Thomson s A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice as well as to James Johnson s Scots Musical Museum citation needed Arguably his claim to immortality chiefly rests on these volumes which placed him in the front rank of lyric poets 20 As a songwriter he provided his own lyrics sometimes adapted from traditional words He put words to Scottish folk melodies and airs which he collected and composed his own arrangements of the music including modifying tunes or recreating melodies on the basis of fragments In letters he explained that he preferred simplicity relating songs to spoken language which should be sung in traditional ways The original instruments would be fiddle and the guitar of the period which was akin to a cittern but the transcription of songs for piano has resulted in them usually being performed in classical concert or music hall styles 24 At the 3 week Celtic Connections festival Glasgow each January Burns songs are often performed with both fiddle and guitar Thomson as a publisher commissioned arrangements of Scottish Welsh and Irish Airs by such eminent composers of the day as Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven with new lyrics The contributors of lyrics included Burns While such arrangements had wide popular appeal 25 26 27 28 Beethoven s music was more advanced and difficult to play than Thomson intended 29 30 Burns described how he had to master singing the tune before he composed the words Burns House in Dumfries Scotland My way is I consider the poetic sentiment correspondent to my idea of the musical expression then chuse my theme begin one stanza when that is composed which is generally the most difficult part of the business I walk out sit down now and then look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed when I feel my Muse beginning to jade I retire to the solitary fireside of my study and there commit my effusions to paper swinging at intervals on the hind legs of my elbow chair by way of calling forth my own critical strictures as my pen goes Burns also worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs sometimes revising expanding and adapting them One of the better known of these collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia the title is not Burns s a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century At Dumfries he wrote his world famous song A Man s a Man for A That which was based on the writings in The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine one of the chief political theoreticians of the American Revolution Burns sent the poem anonymously in 1795 to the Glasgow Courier He was also a radical for reform and wrote poems for democracy such as Parcel of Rogues to the Nation and the Rights of Women Many of Burns s most famous poems are songs with the music based upon older traditional songs For example Auld Lang Syne is set to the traditional tune Can Ye Labour Lea A Red Red Rose is set to the tune of Major Graham and The Battle of Sherramuir is set to the Cameronian Rant Failing health and death The death room of Robert Burns Robert Burns Mausoleum at St Michael s churchyard in Dumfries Burns s worldly prospects were perhaps better than they had ever been but he alienated some acquaintances by freely expressing sympathy with the French 31 and American Revolutions for the advocates of democratic reform and votes for all men and the Society of the Friends of the People which advocated Parliamentary Reform His political views came to the notice of his employers to which he pleaded his innocence Burns met other radicals at the Globe Inn Dumfries As an Exciseman he felt compelled to join the Royal Dumfries Volunteers in March 1795 32 He lived in Dumfries in a two storey red sandstone house on Mill Hole Brae now Burns Street The home is now a museum He went on long journeys on horseback often in harsh weather conditions as an Excise Supervisor He was kept very busy doing reports father of four young children song collector and songwriter As his health began to give way he aged prematurely and fell into fits of despondency 31 The habits of intemperance alleged mainly by temperance activist James Currie 33 are said to have aggravated his long standing possible rheumatic heart condition 34 On the morning of 21 July 1796 Burns died in Dumfries at the age of 37 The funeral took place on Monday 25 July 1796 the day that his son Maxwell was born He was at first buried in the far corner of St Michael s Churchyard in Dumfries a simple slab of freestone was erected as his gravestone by Jean Armour which some felt insulting to his memory 35 His body was eventually moved to its final location in the same cemetery the Burns Mausoleum in September 1817 36 The body of his widow Jean Armour was buried with his in 1834 34 Armour had taken steps to secure his personal property partly by liquidating two promissory notes amounting to fifteen pounds sterling about 1 100 pounds at 2009 prices 37 The family went to the Court of Session in 1798 with a plan to support his surviving children by publishing a four volume edition of his complete works and a biography written by James Currie Subscriptions were raised to meet the initial cost of publication which was in the hands of Thomas Cadell and William Davies in London and William Creech bookseller in Edinburgh 38 Hogg records that fund raising for Burns s family was embarrassingly slow and it took several years to accumulate significant funds through the efforts of John Syme and Alexander Cunningham 34 Burns was posthumously given the freedom of the town of Dumfries 33 Hogg records that Burns was given the freedom of the Burgh of Dumfries on 4 June 1787 9 years before his death and was also made an Honorary Burgess of Dumfries 39 Through his five surviving children of 12 born Burns has over 900 living descendants as of 2019 40 Literary style Tam O Shanter s Ride Victoria Park Halifax Nova Scotia Burns s style is marked by spontaneity directness and sincerity and ranges from the tender intensity of some of his lyrics through the humour of Tam o Shanter and the satire of Holy Willie s Prayer and The Holy Fair 20 Burns s poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity with and knowledge of Classical Biblical and English literature as well as the Scottish Makar tradition 41 Burns was skilled in writing not only in the Scots language but also in the Scottish English dialect of the English language Some of his works such as Love and Liberty also known as The Jolly Beggars are written in both Scots and English for various effects 42 His themes included republicanism he lived during the French Revolutionary period and Radicalism which he expressed covertly in Scots Wha Hae Scottish patriotism anticlericalism class inequalities gender roles commentary on the Scottish Kirk of his time Scottish cultural identity poverty sexuality and the beneficial aspects of popular socialising carousing Scotch whisky folk songs and so forth 43 Statue of Burns in Dumfries town centre unveiled in 1882 The strong emotional highs and lows associated with many of Burns s poems have led some such as Burns biographer Robert Crawford 44 to suggest that he suffered from manic depression a hypothesis that has been supported by analysis of various samples of his handwriting Burns himself referred to suffering from episodes of what he called blue devilism The National Trust for Scotland has downplayed the suggestion on the grounds that evidence is insufficient to support the claim 45 InfluenceBritain Burns is generally classified as a proto Romantic poet and he influenced William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley greatly His direct literary influences in the use of Scots in poetry were Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson The Edinburgh literati worked to sentimentalise Burns during his life and after his death dismissing his education by calling him a heaven taught ploughman Burns influenced later Scottish writers especially Hugh MacDiarmid who fought to dismantle what he felt had become a sentimental cult that dominated Scottish literature Canada Burns Monument in Dorchester Square Montreal Quebec Burns had a significant influence on Alexander McLachlan 46 and some influence on Robert Service While this may not be so obvious in Service s English verse which is Kiplingesque it is more readily apparent in his Scots verse 47 Scottish Canadians have embraced Robert Burns as a kind of patron poet and mark his birthday with festivities Robbie Burns Day is celebrated from Newfoundland and Labrador 48 to Nanaimo 49 Every year Canadian newspapers publish biographies of the poet 50 listings of local events 51 and buffet menus 52 Universities mark the date in a range of ways McMaster University library organized a special collection 53 and Simon Fraser University s Centre for Scottish Studies organized a marathon reading of Burns s poetry 54 55 Senator Heath Macquarrie quipped of Canada s first Prime Minister that While the lovable Robbie Burns went in for wine women and song his fellow Scot John A did not chase women and was not musical 56 Gung Haggis Fat Choy is a hybrid of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day celebrated in Vancouver since the late 1990s 57 58 United States Burns Commons in Milwaukee Wisconsin U S Statue of Burns and Luath his Border Collie 59 in Winthrop Square Boston Massachusetts It was moved back to its original location in the Back Bay Fens in 2019 In January 1864 President Abraham Lincoln was invited to attend a Robert Burns celebration by Robert Crawford and if unable to attend send a toast Lincoln composed a toast 60 An example of Burns s literary influence in the US is seen in the choice by novelist John Steinbeck of the title of his 1937 novel Of Mice and Men taken from a line in the second to last stanza of To a Mouse The best laid schemes o mice an men Gang aft agley Burns s influence on American vernacular poets such as James Whitcomb Riley and Frank Lebby Stanton has been acknowledged by their biographers 61 When asked for the source of his greatest creative inspiration singer songwriter Bob Dylan selected Burns s 1794 song A Red Red Rose as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life 62 The author J D Salinger used protagonist Holden Caulfield s misinterpretation of Burns s poem Comin Through the Rye as his title and a main interpretation of Caulfield s grasping to his childhood in his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye The poem actually about a rendezvous is thought by Caulfield to be about saving people from falling out of childhood 63 Russia Burns became the people s poet of Russia In Imperial Russia Burns was translated into Russian and became a source of inspiration for the ordinary oppressed Russian people In Soviet Russia he was elevated as the archetypal poet of the people As a great admirer of the egalitarian ethos behind the American and French Revolutions who expressed his own egalitarianism in poems such as his Birthday Ode for George Washington or his Is There for Honest Poverty commonly known as A Man s a Man for a that Burns was well placed for endorsement by the Communist regime as a progressive artist A new translation of Burns begun in 1924 by Samuil Marshak proved enormously popular selling over 600 000 copies 64 The USSR honoured Burns with a commemorative stamp in 1956 He remains popular in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union 65 HonoursLandmarks and organisations Ellisland Farm c 1900 Statue in Confederate Park by the Robert Burns Association of Jacksonville Florida Burns clubs have been founded worldwide The first one known as The Mother Club was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants born in Ayrshire some of whom had known Burns 66 The club set its original objectives as To cherish the name of Robert Burns to foster a love of his writings and generally to encourage an interest in the Scottish language and literature The club also continues to have local charitable work as a priority 67 Burns s birthplace in Alloway is now a National Trust for Scotland property called the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum It includes the humble Burns Cottage where he was born and spent the first years of his life a modern museum building which houses more than 5 000 Burns artefacts including his handwritten manuscripts the historic Alloway Auld Kirk and Brig o Doon which feature in Burns s masterpiece Tam o Shanter and the Burns Monument which was erected in Burns s honour and finished in 1823 His house in Dumfries is operated as the Robert Burns House and the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries features more exhibits about his life and works Ellisland Farm in Auldgirth which he owned from 1788 to 1791 is maintained as a working farm with a museum and interpretation centre by the Friends of Ellisland Farm Significant 19th century monuments to him stand in Alloway Leith and Dumfries An early 20th century replica of his birthplace cottage belonging to the Burns Club Atlanta stands in Atlanta Georgia These are part of a large list of Burns memorials and statues around the world Organisations include the Robert Burns Fellowship of the University of Otago in New Zealand and the Burns Club Atlanta in the United States Towns named after Burns include Burns New York and Burns Oregon In the suburb of Summerhill Dumfries the majority of the streets have names with Burns connotations A British Rail Standard Class 7 steam locomotive was named after him along with a later Class 87 electric locomotive No 87035 68 On 24 September 1996 Class 156 diesel unit 156433 was named The Kilmarnock Edition at Girvan station to launch the new Burns Line services between Girvan Ayr and Kilmarnock supported by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport 69 Burns statue in Treasury Gardens Melbourne Victoria Australia Several streets surrounding the Frederick Law Olmsted Jr s Back Bay Fens in Boston Massachusetts were designated with Burns connotations A life size statue was dedicated in Burns s honour within the Back Bay Fens of the West Fenway neighbourhood in 1912 It stood until 1972 when it was relocated downtown sparking protests from the neighbourhood literary fans and preservationists of Olmsted s vision for the Back Bay Fens There is a statue of Burns in The Octagon Dunedin in the same pose as the one in Dundee Dunedin s first European settlers were Scots Thomas Burns a nephew of Burns was one of Dunedin s founding fathers A crater on Mercury is named after Burns In November 2012 Burns was awarded the title Honorary Chartered Surveyor 70 by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors the only posthumous membership so far granted by the institution The oldest statue of Burns is in the town of Camperdown Victoria 71 It now hosts an annual Robert Burns Scottish Festival in celebration of the statue and its history 72 In 2020 the Robert Burns Academy in Cumnock East Ayrshire opened and is named after Burns as an honour of Burns having spent time living in nearby Mauchline 73 Stamps and currency Burns stamp USSR 1956 The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to honour Burns with a commemorative stamp marking the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956 74 The UK postal service the Royal Mail has issued postage stamps commemorating Burns three times In 1966 two stamps were issued priced fourpence and one shilling and threepence both carrying Burns s portrait In 1996 an issue commemorating the bicentenary of his death comprised four stamps priced 19p 25p 41p and 60p and including quotes from Burns s poems On 22 January 2009 two 1st class stamps were issued by the Royal Mail to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Burns s birth 75 Burns was pictured on the Clydesdale Bank 5 note from 1971 to 2009 76 77 On the reverse of the note was a vignette of a field mouse and a wild rose in reference to Burns s poem To a Mouse The Clydesdale Bank s notes were redesigned in 2009 and since then he has been pictured on the front of their 10 note 77 In September 2007 the Bank of Scotland redesigned their banknotes to feature famous Scottish bridges The reverse side of new 5 features Brig o Doon famous from Burns s poem Tam o Shanter and pictures the statue of Burns at that site 78 In 1996 the Isle of Man issued a four coin set of Crown 5 pieces on the themes of Auld Lang Syne Edinburgh Castle Revenue Cutter and Writing Poems 79 Tristan da Cunha produced a gold 5 Bicentenary Coin 80 In 2009 the Royal Mint issued a commemorative two pound coin featuring a quote from Auld Lang Syne 81 Musical tributes Engraved version of the Alexander Nasmyth 1787 portrait In 1976 singer Jean Redpath in collaboration with composer Serge Hovey started to record all of Burns s songs with a mixture of traditional and Burns s own compositions The project ended when Hovey died after seven of the planned twenty two volumes were completed Redpath also recorded four cassettes of Burns s songs re issued as 3 CDs for the Scots Musical Museum 82 In 1996 a musical about Burns s life called Red Red Rose won third place at a competition for new musicals in Denmark Robert Burns was played by John Barrowman On 25 January 2008 a musical play about the love affair between Robert Burns and Nancy McLehose entitled Clarinda premiered in Edinburgh before touring Scotland 83 citation needed The plan was that Clarinda would make its American premiere in Atlantic Beach FL at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre on 25 January 2013 84 Eddi Reader has released two albums Sings the Songs of Robert Burns and The Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition about the work of the poet Alfred B Street wrote the words and Henry Tucker wrote the music for a song called Our Own Robbie Burns 85 in 1856 Burns suppers Main article Burns supper Great chieftain o the puddin race cutting the haggis at a Burns supper Burns Night in effect a second national day is celebrated on Burns s birthday 25 January with Burns suppers around the world and is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day St Andrew s Day The first Burns supper in The Mother Club in Greenock was held on what was thought to be his birthday on 29 January 1802 in 1803 it was discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was 25 January 1759 67 The format of Burns suppers has changed little since The basic format starts with a general welcome and announcements followed with the Selkirk Grace After the grace comes the piping and cutting of the haggis when Burns s famous Address to a Haggis is read and the haggis is cut open The event usually allows for people to start eating just after the haggis is presented At the end of the meal a series of toasts often including a Toast to the Lassies and replies are made This is when the toast to the immortal memory an overview of Burns s life and work is given The event usually concludes with the singing of Auld Lang Syne Greatest Scot In 2009 STV ran a television series and public vote on who was The Greatest Scot of all time Robert Burns won narrowly beating William Wallace 86 A bust of Burns is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling Crater A crater on the planet Mercury has been named after Burns See also Poetry portal Scotland portalAgnes Burns sister Alexander Tait poet Annabella Burns sister Elizabeth Betty Burns Elizabeth Riddell Burns Glenriddell Manuscripts James Glencairn Burns son Jean Lorimer Chloris John Burns farmer brother List of 18th century British working class writers People on Scottish banknotes List of Robert Burns memorials Poems by David Sillar Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect London Edition Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect Second Edinburgh Edition Robert Aiken Robert Burns and the Eglinton Estate Robert Burns Junior eldest son Robert Burns s Commonplace Book 1783 1785 Robert Burns s diamond point engravings Robert Burns s Interleaved Scots Musical Museum The Holy Tulzie The World of Robert Burns educational software William Burns saddler brother William Nicol Burns son Notes Burns is also known by various other names and epithets These include Rabbie Burns the National Bard Bard of Ayrshire the Ploughman Poet Scotland s favourite son Robden of Solway Firth and simply the Bard 1 2 References O Hagan A The People s Poet Archived 25 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian 19 January 2008 Scotland s National Bard scottishexecutive gov uk Scottish Executive 25 January 2008 Retrieved 10 June 2009 permanent dead link Hall of Fame Robert Burns 1759 1796 National Records of Scotland 31 May 2013 Archived from the original on 28 December 2020 Retrieved 14 April 2018 Burnes William The Burns Encyclopedia Archived from the original on 23 April 2020 Retrieved 25 April 2011 Robert Burns 1759 1796 The Robert Burns World Federation Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 25 April 2011 a b c d Cousin 1910 p 62 Mauchline kirk session records National Archives of Scotland The Legacy of Robert Burns feature on the National Archives of Scotland website National Archives of Scotland 1 July 2009 Archived from the original on 8 October 2009 Retrieved 21 July 2009 Crawford Robert 30 April 2011 The Bard Random House pp 222 223 ISBN 9781446466407 Archived from the original on 12 September 2022 Retrieved 26 March 2018 Leask Nigel 25 June 2009 Burns and the Poetics of Abolition In Carruthers Gerard ed Edinburgh Companion to Robert Burns Edinburgh University Press p 51 ISBN 9780748636501 Letter of Charles Douglas to Patrick Douglas dated Port Antonio 19th June 1786 page 3 of 3 Burns Scotland Archived from the original on 2 August 2016 Retrieved 26 March 2018 a b Burns 1993 p 19 a b c Highland Mary Mary Campbell Famous Sons and Daughters of Greenock Nostalgic Greenock Archived from the original on 20 February 2010 Retrieved 17 January 2010 Feature on The Poet Robert Burns Robert Burns History Scotland org 13 January 2004 Archived from the original on 27 February 2009 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Folkin For Jamaica Sly Robbie and Robert Burns The Play Ethic 1 January 2009 Archived from the original on 28 January 2021 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Mullen Stephen 4 March 2016 The myth of Scottish slaves Sceptical Scot Retrieved 9 April 2023 Williams Lisa 9 October 2016 Remaking our histories Scotland Slavery and Empire National Galleries Scotland Retrieved 9 April 2023 Burns 1993 pp 19 20 a b c Burns 1993 p 20 The Twa Dogs Archived 6 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine National Trust for Scotland Rev Thos Thomson 1856 Chambers R ed Significant Scots Thomas Blacklock Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen Blackie and Son Archived from the original on 3 February 2010 Retrieved 17 January 2010 National Galleries of Scotland Artists A Z N Artists A Z Online Collection Collection National Galleries of Scotland Archived from the original on 12 September 2022 Retrieved 10 December 2011 a b c d e f Cousin 1910 p 63 Robert Burns Country The Burns Encyclopedia Johnson James c 1750 1811 www robertburns org Archived from the original on 25 October 2015 Retrieved 13 December 2019 a b Robert Burns Poetry Poems Poets Archived 12 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 24 September 2010 Diploma of the Royal Company of Archers Burns Scotland Archived from the original on 26 January 2016 Retrieved 3 November 2015 David Sibbald Robert Burns the Song Writer Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 23 December 2015 Folksong Arrangements by Haydn Folksong Arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven Projects Home Trio van Beethoven Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 23 December 2015 Thomson s Select Melodies of Scotland Ireland and Wales Thomson George Archived from the original on 26 January 2016 Retrieved 23 December 2015 25 Schottische Lieder Op 108 Beethoven Ludwig van Archived from the original on 23 December 2015 Retrieved 23 December 2015 12 Schottische Lieder WoO 156 Beethoven Ludwig van Archived from the original on 23 December 2015 Retrieved 23 December 2015 Ludwig and Rabbie a partnership that ended in tears Archived 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine The Independent 2 December 2005 Retrieved 23 December 2015 Beethoven Haus Bonn 1 April 2002 Beethoven Haus Bonn Archived from the original on 23 December 2015 Retrieved 23 December 2015 a b Cousin 1910 p 64 MS The Dumfries Volunteers Robert Burns Birthplace Museum Archived from the original on 6 October 2018 Retrieved 5 May 2013 a b Robert Burns The R B Gallery Archived 19 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 24 September 2010 a b c Hogg PS 2008 Robert Burns The Patriot Bard Edinburgh Mainstream Publishing ISBN 978 1 84596 412 2 p 321 Thomas Hamilton architect Joe Rock s Research Pages Archived from the original on 2 December 2020 Retrieved 31 December 2012 Robert Burns Mausoleum Undiscovered Scotland Archived from the original on 3 September 2014 Retrieved 27 August 2014 Testament Dative and Inventory of Robert Burns 1796 Dumfries Commissary Court National Archives of Scotland CC5 6 18 pp 74 75 ScotlandsPeople website National Archives of Scotland Archived from the original on 26 April 2016 Retrieved 21 July 2009 Appointment of judicial factor for Robert Burns s children Court of Session records National Archives of Scotland CS97 101 15 1798 1801 The Legacy of Robert Burns feature on the National Archives of Scotland website National Archives of Scotland 1 July 2009 Archived from the original on 8 October 2009 Retrieved 21 July 2009 Hogg PS 2008 Robert Burns The Patriot Bard Edinburgh Mainstream Publishing ISBN 978 1 84596 412 2 p 154 Burness Genealogy and Family History Person Page Archived from the original on 15 December 2018 Retrieved 27 February 2012 Robert Burns Literary Style Archived 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 24 September 2010 Robert Burns some hae meat Archived 8 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 24 September 2010 Red Star Cafe to the Kibble Archived 12 September 2022 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 24 September 2010 Rumens C 16 January 2009 The Bard By Robert Crawford Books London The Independent Archived from the original on 18 January 2009 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Watson J 7 June 2009 Bard in the hand Trust accused of hiding Burns s mental illness Scotland on Sunday Archived from the original on 10 June 2009 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Robert Burns and Friends Essays by W Ormiston Roy Fellows presented to G Ross Roy Patrick Scott amp Kenneth Simson eds Book Surge Publishing 2012 ISBN 978 1439270974 Chapter Alexander McLachlan The Robert Burns of Canada contribution of Edward J Cowan pp 131 149 Burness Edwina January 1986 Burness Edwina 1986 The Influence of Burns and Fergusson on the War Poetry of Robert Service Studies in Scottish Literature Vol 21 Iss 1 Studies in Scottish Literature 21 1 Archived from the original on 3 January 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Haggis stress The Western Start 25 January 2013 Archived from the original on 1 February 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Robbie Burns life celebrated with poetry and music Nanaimo Bulletin 25 January 2013 Archived from the original on 2 February 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Ian Hunter Robbie Burns was the everyman s poet National Post 25 January 2013 Archived from the original on 16 February 2013 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Regina weekend round up Robbie Burns Day Metro News ca Regina 25 January 2013 Archived from the original on 3 February 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Robbie Burns buffet menu Canadian Living 25 January 2013 Archived from the original on 28 April 2012 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Happy Robbie Burns Day from the Bard Himself McMaster University Library 24 January 2013 Archived from the original on 1 February 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Fans of Robbie Burns poetry at SFU attempt to break their own world record Global TV BC 25 January 2013 Archived from the original on 16 February 2013 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Ceremonies amp Events Robbie Burns Day Simon Fraser University January 2013 Archived from the original on 2 February 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2013 In Sir John A s Footsteps The Virtual Tour City of Kingston Ontario n d Archived from the original on 19 February 2013 Retrieved 27 January 2013 Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy Toddish McWong s Misadventures in Multiculturalism Archived from the original on 16 January 2013 Retrieved 27 January 2013 What do you get when you fuse Robbie Burns to Chinese Canadians Ugly Chinese Canadian com 17 January 2013 Archived from the original on 26 January 2016 Retrieved 27 January 2013 The Twa Dogs Archived 6 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine National Trust for Scotland Crawford Robert The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress Robert Crawford to Abraham Lincoln Saturday 23 January 1864 Invitation to attend Robert Burns celebration 23 January 1864 http memory loc gov ammem malquery html Archived 19 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine accessed 20 January 2013 Lincoln s toast see Collected Works VIII 237 See e g Paul Stevenson Stanton the Writer with a Heart in Atlanta Constitution 1925 January 18 p 1 republished by Perry LL Wightman MF 1938 Frank Lebby Stanton Georgia s First Post Laureate Atlanta Georgia State Department of Education pp 8 14 Michaels S 6 October 2008 Bob Dylan Robert Burns is my biggest inspiration The Guardian London Archived from the original on 3 September 2014 Retrieved 11 June 2009 Dylan has revealed his greatest inspiration is Scotland s favourite son the Bard of Ayrshire the 18th century poet known to most as Rabbie Burns Dylan selected A Red Red Rose written by Burns in 1794 J D Salinger s Catcher in the Rye Sparknotes Archived from the original on 12 June 2010 Retrieved 14 July 2010 When Holden tries to explain why he hates school she accuses him of not liking anything He tells her his fantasy of being the catcher in the rye a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the poem that he took the image from Robert Burns s poem says if a body meet a body coming through the rye not catch a body Burns Biography Standrews com 27 January 1990 Archived from the original on 11 December 2004 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Trew J 10 April 2005 From Rabbie with love Scotsman com Heritage amp Culture Archived from the original on 5 June 2011 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Gordon Carl 7 May 1980 Oldest Burns club opens its doors to the lassies The Glasgow Herald p 4 Archived from the original on 12 September 2022 Retrieved 23 July 2017 a b Congratulation Greenock Burns Club The Robert Burns World Federation Limited Archived from the original on 26 January 2010 Retrieved 18 January 2010 Poet in motion Robert Burns takes to the rails for the third time Rail issue 282 3 July 1996 page 52 Naming Notes Rail issue 290 23 October 1996 page 53 Posthumous recognition of Burns the land surveyor RICS 19 November 2012 Archived from the original on 15 April 2013 Retrieved 21 November 2012 Robbie Burns Day 10 facts you never knew Simcoe 21 January 2015 Archived from the original on 21 July 2015 Retrieved 11 June 2015 Camperdown s Robert Burns Festival Victorian Government Archived from the original on 13 June 2015 Retrieved 12 June 2015 Burns House Museum Mauchline Museums Archived from the original on 11 January 2021 Retrieved 9 January 2021 Robert Burns World Federation Limited Burns chronicle Volume 4 Issue 3 p 27 Burns Federation 1995 Stamps show great British designs BBC Retrieved 30 September 2022 Current Banknotes Clydesdale Bank The Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers Archived from the original on 3 October 2008 Retrieved 15 October 2008 a b Clydesdale launches Homecoming bank notes The Herald 14 January 2009 Archived from the original on 12 June 2012 Retrieved 24 January 2012 Current Banknotes Bank of Scotland The Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers Archived from the original on 3 October 2008 Retrieved 17 October 2008 Pobjoy Mint Archived 25 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 27 November 2011 5 Coin Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 27 November 2011 The 2009 Robert Burns 2 Coin Pack Archived from the original on 18 December 2008 Retrieved 5 January 2009 THE SONGS OF ROBERT BURNS from the Scots Musical Museum Jean Redpath Sings Archived from the original on 5 October 2013 Retrieved 11 January 2014 Clarinda The Musical No woman shunned Robert Burns advances until he met Clarinda Clarindathemusical com Archived from the original on 9 October 2006 Retrieved 10 June 2009 Clarinda The Musical United States Premiere abettheatre com Archived from the original on 29 November 2013 Retrieved 15 December 2012 Our Own Robbie Burns Tucker Henry L Archived from the original on 6 September 2015 Retrieved 18 July 2015 Robert Burns voted Greatest Scot Archived 24 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine STV Retrieved 10 December 2010 Bibliography Burns R 1993 Bold A ed Rhymer Rab An Anthology of Poems and Prose London Black Swan ISBN 1 84195 380 6 Burns R 2003 Noble A Hogg PS eds The Canongate Burns The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns Edinburgh Canongate Books ISBN 1 84195 380 6 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Cousin John William 1910 Burns Robert A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature London J M Dent amp Sons pp 62 64 via Wikisource Dietrich Hohmann Ich Robert Burns Biographical Novel Neues Leben Berlin 1990 in German External linksBiographical information Works by or about Robert Burns at Wikisource Quotations related to Robert Burns at Wikiquote Media related to Robert Burns at Wikimedia Commons Robert Burns website at National Library of Scotland Legacy of Robert Burns Archived 8 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine at National Archives of Scotland Archival material relating to Robert Burns UK National Archives Guide to Robert Burns collection at L Tom Perry Special Collections Brigham Young University Works by Robert Burns at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Robert Burns at Internet Archive Works by Robert Burns at LibriVox public domain audiobooks Works by Robert Burns at Open Library Robert Burns at the Eighteenth Century Poetry Archive ECPA Modern English translations of poems by Robert Burns Cousin John William 1910 A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature London J M Dent amp Sons p 57 Robert Burns at the British Library To Robert Burns historical marker near Burns Cottage in Atlanta Georgia The Papers of Robert Burns at Dartmouth College Library Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Robert Burns amp oldid 1152673862, wikipedia, 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