Robert Burns

1
Robert Burns
2
Robert Burns

• Date of birth - 25 January 1759
• Date of death - 21 July 1796
• Also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite
  son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and
  The Bard
• National poet of Scotland

3
Robert Burns

• He is the best known of the poets who have
  written in the Scots language.
• Pioneer of the Romantic movement
• Strong influence on Scottish literature
• Collected folk songs from across Scotland

4
Robert Burns

• His poem Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay
• Scots Wha Hae served for a long time as an
  unofficial national anthem of the country.
• Other poems 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.

5
Robert Burns

• Burns was born two miles south of Ayr, in
  Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland
• the eldest of the seven children of William
  Burness and Agnes Broun
• Received most of his education from his father

6
Education

• R. Burns was housetaught
• He was also taught by John Murdoch
• Dalrymple Parish School 1772
• In 1775, he was sent to finish his education with
  a tutor at Kirkoswald, where he met Peggy Thomson
  

7
Love affairs

• Elizabeth Paton
• Jean Armour
• Mary Campbell (Highland Mary)

8
Ellisland Farm

• Burns returned to Ayrshire on 18 February 1788
• Resumed his relationship with Jean Armour
• Took a lease on the farm of Ellisland near
  Dumfries on 18 March
• Gave up the farm in 1791
• Refused to become a candidate for a newly-created
  Chair of Agriculture in the University of
  Edinburgh

9
Lyricist

• After giving up his farm he removed to Dumfries
  itself
• It was at this time that, being requested to
  write lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland
• Burns also worked to collect and preserve
  Scottish folk songs at that time
• One of the better known of these collections is
  The Merry Muses of Caledonia

10
Failing health and death

• As his health began to give way, Burns began to
  age prematurely and fell into fits of despondency
  
• His death was probably caused by bacterial
  infection reaching his blood
• On the morning of 21 July 1796, Robert Burns died
  in Dumfries at the age of 37

11
Failing health and death

• The funeral took place on Monday 25 July 1796
• He was at first buried in the far corner of St.
  Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries
• His body was eventually moved in September 1815
  to its final resting place, in the same cemetery,
  the Burns Mausoleum

12
Literary style

• Burns' poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity
  and knowledge of Classical, Biblical, and English
  literature, as well as the Scottish Makar
  tradition.
• His themes included republicanism and Radicalism
  which he expressed covertly in Scots Wha Hae,
  Scottish patriotism, anticlericalism, class
  inequalities

13
Influence

• 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.
• Burns would influence later Scottish writers,
  especially Hugh MacDiarmid

14
My Hearts In The Highlands

• My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not
  here, My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the
  deer - A-chasing the wild deer, and following the
  roe My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
• Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the
  NorthThe birth place of Valour, the country of
  Worth Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The
  hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

15
My Hearts In The Highlands

• Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow
  Farewell to the straths and green valleys below
  Farewell to the forrests and wild-hanging woods
  Farwell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
  
• My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not
  here, My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the
  deer Chasing the wild deer, and following the
  roe My heart's in the Highlands, whereever I go.

16

• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!