Robert Burns (1759-1796)

[Rue Dubac]

Burns a "minor" poet? If poetry is "memorable speech", he was a great one. He was a wonderful satirist - Holy Willie's Prayer - and had a clear understanding of humanity's faults and foibles, including his own. Tam o' Shanter is a comic masterpiece. His work is universal in range. He was highly regarded by several of the Edinburgh enlightened. Perhaps he suffers for being too popular? Highland Dougie has put it better than I can, but wanted to add my sixpennorth.
(I have no drop of Scottish blood, by the way!)

[HighlandDougie]

Possibly. But equally possible, that some of us do 'understand' his poetry - but don't think it's all that good - when compared with that of other Scots poets.

Well I'm not sure quite what "good" poetry is supposed to be. Not McGonagall, I suppose, but if having the qualities which Rue Dubac rightly adumbrates above means that Burns's poetry is "less good", that doesn't lessen the universality of his work or its appeal beyond those circles of people who feel that they have the intellectual, err, "heft" to make such judgements, which always seem to me to have more than a faint touch of de haut en bas about them.

[P. G. Tipps]

I've never been to a Burns Supper or would know how to make a quality judgement on Burns' poems compared to, say, the English Romantics. Unlike MacMillan I no longer have any hang-ups about religious background/practice or the lack of it, I'm only interested in the poetry itself. As for politics everyone claims a slice of Rabbie, another sure sign of his genius and undeniable worldwide popularity.

It is all about substance rather than style for me. In other words the simple message is the thing. Burns has few equals in that regard.

The very mention of poetic substance may make Vinteuil go midly apoplectic but that, I submit, is precisely why Burns' poetry has not only endured but positively thrived in a world way beyond the narrow boundaries and 'cult' of an annual Supper!

[Rue Dubac]

It is pointless to compare Burns with the English Romantics. He was eleven years older than Wordsworth, thirteen years older than Coleridge. He died when Byron was six, Keats three. He was more in the Augustan tradition of Pope, though less concerned with principles of art. More contemporaneous with Blake. He did brilliant things with the verse forms and rhythms he adopted, and was amazingly succinct. I do not believe there is a simpler or more profound love lyric in the language than My love is like a red, red rose. "Nursing her wrath to keep it warm" tells you all you need to know and more about Tam's wife.
As well, he was a lovely man and actually liked women. He took financial responsibility for his illegitimate children, and unlike Byron, did not take them from their mothers and shove them in a convent to be neglected. He also had to spend most of his life labouring on the farm to make a living. It is amazing he produced so much of such richness.

[johncorrigan]

I've never been to a Burns Supper or would know how to make a quality judgement on Burns' poems compared to, say, the English Romantics. Unlike MacMillan I no longer have any hang-ups about religious background/practice or the lack of it, I'm only interested in the poetry itself. As for politics everyone claims a slice of Rabbie, another sure sign of his genius and undeniable worldwide popularity.

It is all about substance rather than style for me. In other words the simple message is the thing. Burns has few equals in that regard.

The very mention of poetic substance may make Vinteuil go midly apoplectic but that, I submit, is precisely why Burns' poetry has not only endured but positively thrived in a world way beyond the narrow boundaries and 'cult' of an annual Supper!

Thanks PGT. That just about sums it up for me.

...and can I just add my annual favourite, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-n-WIcj_M

[vinteuil]

He did brilliant things with the verse forms and rhythms he adopted, and was amazingly succinct. I do not believe there is a simpler or more profound love lyric in the language than My love is like a red, red rose. .

... thank you, rue du Bac, for your post.

"O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile"

I have a vivid memory of my English teacher trying to convince me of the excellence of this when I was 15/16.

I think she had rather loaded the dice, because it was put in contrast with some meretricious verse - perhaps Walter Savage Landor. I could see the 'fakery' in the one and the 'authenticity' in the other - but I'm afraid I still didn't - still don't - appreciate what she saw as the quality in the Burns.

Doubtless, as the cliché goes, "my loss".

At my ripe old age I have got used to not appreciating what many others enjoy : this is counterbalanced by the great joy I get out of things that many others don't "get" at all...

[usher]

Can I put in a word for my fellow-St Andrean, Robert Fergusson? Burns certainly recognised his quality, and his picture of 18th century Edinburgh is vivid and exciting. I have a CD called "Fergusson's Auld Reikie" which combines his poetry with contemporary music.

[P. G. Tipps]

Can I put in a word for my fellow-St Andrean, Robert Fergusson? Burns certainly recognised his quality, and his picture of 18th century Edinburgh is vivid and exciting. I have a CD called "Fergusson's Auld Reikie" which combines his poetry with contemporary music.

Indeed and Burns lived to a ripe old age compared to Fergusson who died when he was 24 ...

[Richard Tarleton]

The display on my muted car radio said that Suzy was playing My Love is Like a Red Red Rose - I turned on the sound only to hear a peely wally counter-tenor (who turned out to be Andreas Scholl) with syrupy orchestration. Ghastly. Why? (did he record it, even). Kenneth McKellar, please.

[BBMmk2]

We did a Burn's Night last year but had a chippy this year! I have Scot ancestry, on both sides of my family, so I had a wee dram!