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Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)
Robert Burns was born at Alloway, near Ayr, on January 25, 1759. His father
William was a gardener to the Provost of Ayr. Robert was educated
briefly at John Murdoch's school in Alloway and later in Ayr.
Family financial worries forced Burns to work as a farm labourer, and it
was while thus occupied that he met his first love, Nelly Kirkpatrick.
She inspired him to try his hand at poetry, a song entitled "O, once I lov'd a bonnie
lass", set to the tune of a traditional reel.
Burns worked at a succession of labouring jobs, including flax dressing,
and began writing poetry regularly. When his father died in 1784,
Burns and his brother Gilbert rented a farm near Mauchline.
Burns spread his affections freely, and the next decade saw 8 illegitimate
children born to him through 5 different women. One of these, Jean
Armour, became Mrs. Burns in 1788.
The first published work of poetry by Robert Burns was "Poems,
Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" which saw the light
of day on 31 July 1786. This collection of verse contained many
of Burn's best works, including "To a Mouse", and "The
Holy Fair".
The success of "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish
Dialect" convinced Burns to abandon plans to emigrate
to Jamaica. Buoyed by his burgeoning reputation as an unschooled
"ploughman poet", Burns moved to Edinburgh and became
part of the thriving cultural scene there.
He was unable to find a patron to support his writing, but publisher
James Johnson gave him work editing a collection of Scottish folk
songs. This work, titled "The Scots
Musical Museum", was published in 5 volumes over
sixteen years. Burns himself contributed over 150 songs, including
"Auld Lang Syne", a reworking of an earlier folk song of unknown origin.
Burns and his wife Jean moved to Mauchline, where in 1790 he produced
"Tam o' Shanter",
which was first published merely as an accompaniment to an illustration
of Alloway Kirk, in a volume of "Antiquities
of Scotland". The growing Burns family moved again,
this time to Dumfries.
Burns contributed 114 songs to "A
Select Collection Of Scottish Airs" by George Thomson,
but he received very little payment for his efforts. In 1795, Burns
was inspired by the events of the French Revolution to write "For
a' that and a' that", his cry for human equality.
One year later, on July 21, 1796, Burns was dead of rheumatic fever.
He was buried in the churchyard of St. Michael's in Dumfries, even
as his wife Jean was in childbirth with their ninth child.
Robert Burns gained more fame after his death than he ever did during his
lifetime. Many of his songs and poems have become international
favourites - even among those who find his use of Scottish lowland
dialect difficult to decipher.
Biography by: http://www.britainexpress.com
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Copyright © 2003-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson, Poetry Connection. All Rights Reserved.
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