Burns, Robert

(1759-1796)

   Scotland's national poet. One of seven children, Burns was born January 25 in a small thatched cottage at Alloway, near Ayr (now a museum). Scots all over the world celebrate Burns Night on that date. William Burns, a stern Calvinist farmer, ensured that Robert received a sound education in English, including classic authors from Shakespeare onward, and a knowledge of French and mathematics. His spare time was occupied on his father's ailing farm as laborer and ploughman. His father died in 1784, saved from the embarrassment of Robert's satirical attacks on the kirk, and from his love affairs, which resulted in many illegitimate children. Yet it was these relationships that produced the warmest, richest, most tender and most sensuous love songs that any poet has written, songs such as: "Auld Lang Syne," "Scots Wha Hae," "Comin' thro' the Rye," and "Mary of Argyle." A Burns memorial was erected in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey in 1885. Some of his other poems: "A Red, Red Rose," "Allan Water," "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton," "Grace After Dinner," "Mary Morison," "Ode [for General Washington's Birthday]," "To a Mouse," "To a Haggis."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Burns Encyclopedia (www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century Verse. Roger Lonsdale, ed. Oxford University Press, 1984. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.