Title: ROBERT BURNS (25 January 1759
1ROBERT BURNS (25 January 1759 21 July 1796)
2HIS LIFE
- Robert Burns (25 January 1759 21 July 1796)
(also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite
son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and
in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish
poet and a 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 also in English and a "light"
Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond
Scotland.
3- Burns was born in Alloway, South Ayrshire, the
eldest of the seven children of William Burness
4- 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.
Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, however,
his casual love affairs did not endear him to the
elders of the local kirk and created for him a
reputation for dissoluteness amongst his
neighbours.
5HIS WORKS
- 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, Ae Fond Kiss and Tam o' Shanter.
6TAM OSHANTER
- Tam o' Shanter, written in 1790, is one of the
best examples of the narrative poem in modern
European literature. - It tells the story of a man who stayed too long
at a public house and witnessed a disturbing
vision on his way home.
7- The sight he sees is Alloway Kirk, ablaze with
light, where a weird hallucinatory dance
involving witches and warlocks, open coffins and
even the Devil himself is in full swing. The
scene is told with grimly enthusiastic gothic
attention to detail. Tam manages to watch
silently until, the dancing witches having cast
off most of their clothes, he is beguiled by one
particularly comely female witch, Nannie, - whose shirt (cutty-sark)
- is too small for her.
- He cannot help shouting
- out in passion
- Weel done, Cutty-sark!
- And in an instant
- all was dark
-
Auld Kirk
8There is a chase and Tams evident pride in the
ability of his horse is justified as she is able
to help him to "win the key-stone o' the brig".
(Witches and warlocks cannot cross running water.)
They only just make it though, as Nannie, first
among the "hellish legion" chasing, grabs the
horse's tail, which comes off. The poem
concludes Now, wha this tale o' truth shall
read,Ilk man and mother's son, take
heedWhene'er to Drink you are inclin'd,Or
Cutty-sarks rin in your mind,Think ye may buy
the joys o'er dearRemember Tam o' Shanter's
mare
Brig o Doon
9CUTTY SARK
- The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869,
she served as a merchant vessel (the last clipper
to be built for that purpose), and then as a
training ship until being put on public display
in 1954. She is preserved in dry dock in
Greenwich, London.
10- The ship is named after the cutty sark (Scots a
short chemise or undergarment). This was the
nickname of the fictional character Nannie Dee
(which is also the name of the ship's figurehead)
in Robert Burns' 1791 comic poem Tam o' Shanter.
She was wearing a linen cutty sark that she had
been given as a child, therefore it was far too
small for her. The erotic sight of her dancing in
such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out
"Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently
became a well known idiom.
11BRIG O DOON
- Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by
Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe.
Songs from the musical, such as "Almost Like
Being in Love" have become standards. -
12- It tells the story of a mysterious Scottish
village that appears for only one day every
hundred years, though to the villagers, the
passing of each century seems no longer than one
night. The enchantment is viewed by them as a
blessing rather than a curse, for it saved the
village from destruction. According to their
covenant with God, no one from Brigadoon may ever
leave, or the enchantment will be broken and the
site and all its inhabitants will disappear into
the mist forever. Two American tourists, lost in
the Scottish Highlands, stumble upon the village
just as a wedding is about to be celebrated, and
their arrival has serious implications for the
village's inhabitants.