Robert Burns was a Scottish poet most remembered for writing “Auld Lang Syne”, but who wrote many poems and songs loved by Scots around the world. In his 37 years he loved and lost on numerous occasions, always accompanied by a poem or three, and he advocated freedom and liberty in politics and life.
Key Facts about Robert Burns
- Born 1759, died 1796
- The greatest Scottish poet ever born
- Most famous for Auld Land Syne
- Voted the Greatest Scot of all time, narrowly beating William Wallace
A Short Biography of Robert Burns
William Burns was a second-generation private gardener to the rich when his first son, Robert, was born on the 25th of January, 1759, into the small cottage he had built on some land he owned in Alloway, a few miles south of the town of Ayr, on the Scottish west-coast. His wife, Agnes Broun, was a farmer’s daughter and 11 years younger than William. Robert was followed by six more children over the next 12 years. The cottage became too small before that time and William had ambitions to become a farmer, so in 1765 he leased Mount Oliphant, a farm two miles away.
Robert was seven at the time and was already being educated at home by his father, who had educated himself in the three R’s and passed that on to his children, as well as the Christian virtues in a small book he wrote for them. He also learnt Latin and French at a local school developed as part of the growing Scottish education-system. Robert’s father was probably a Jacobite, a supporter of the restoration of the Stuart kings to the throne of England and Scotland and his Scottish nationalism rubbed-off on young Robbie. William’s farming at Mount Oliphant was not successful, so in 1777 the family moved to a larger farm at Lochlea, near Tarbolton, where William lived with Agnes until his death.
As for Robert, he already showed a taste both for writing and women, taking up dancing and writing four songs in a failed attempt to woo a wife. He also joined the local Masonic Lodge, which had strong Jacobite leanings. When he was 22 he moved to the nearby town of Irvine, to become a flax-dresser. Flax was used in weaving to make linen and tapestries. While there he met a sea-captain called Richard Brown, who Burns always credited with encouraging him to become a poet. Sadly, his shop caught fire during New Year’s celebrations and Robert had to return home to Lochlea.
After his father’s death in 1784 Robert and his brother Gilbert tried to keep the farm going, but failed and moved again to another nearby town called Mauchline where he met and began to court Jean Amour. During that time he also got his mother’s servant girl pregnant and she bore his first child, Elizabeth, in 1785. Not deterred, Jean also became pregnant and was sent away in disgrace by her parent’s to an uncle for the confinement.
Like so many in Scotland, Burns was unable to earn enough to keep his growing family, so around 1785 he decided to take a position as a bookkeeper on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Unfortunately he didn’t have the money to get there, so he published two collections of his work – Scotch Poems, and Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect, usually called theKilmarnock Volume, to raise it. Some of the poems were written for another girlfriend, Mary Campbell, who he may have been planning to take to Jamaica with him. However Mary died of typhus in 1786.
His poems proved popular and he went to Edinburgh, where he was fêted by the top literary circles as a new and fresh voice. He made a favourable impression and his poems were published in a new edition in Edinburgh, for which he received the enormous sum of £400. While in Edinburgh he became involved in a protracted and complex relationship with Agnes “Nancy” McLehose, who was separated from her husband. When no physical side developed from it, he had an affair with her servant girl, who became pregnant, and with an another servant girl as well. His courtship of these various women was always accompanied by splendid love-poems. He never did get to Jamaica.
As well as a poet Burns was a collector of traditional songs and contributed a large number to several volumes of The Scots Musical Museum, which was completed only after his death. Others occur in his collection, The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Often expressed indirectly in his work, Burns continued to hold Jacobite and revolutionary principles.
In 1788 he finally married Jean and they moved to Dumfries, first farming and then working as a tax collector. He continued to write and had more songs and poems published in newspapers and collections. However his excesses and drinking-habit, couple with rejection by friends for his revolutionary views, combined with a rheumatic heart condition to cause rapid aging in Burns. Following a tooth extraction he died on the 21st of July, 1796, aged just 37, at home in Dumfries. Jean eventually managed to secure the future of his 12 children with the publication of a four-volume collection of his poems and an official biography.
His Legacy
Robbie Burns, or The Bard, as he is often known to Scots, is regarded as the national poet of Scotland. His works unite expatriate Scots around the world and at least one, Auld Lang Syne, is known to everyone. He is considered an early Romantic, and admired by socialists and liberals for such poems of equality and freedom as A Man’s a Man for A’ That and Scots Wha Hae.
Lines like O my Luve’s like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June, orThe best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley are instantly recognized by all.
There are Burns Clubs globally fostering his work and bringing together lovers of his poetry and songs. His birthday, Burns Day, is widely celebrated around the work as an unofficial Scottish National Day. He also enjoyed special popularity in Imperial, Communist and modern Russia.
Sites to Visit
Burns’ house in Dumfries where he died can be visited and is a small museum.
His Mausoleum is in St. Michael’s churchyard in Dumfries, and there is aRobert Burns Centre in the town as well. There is also a statue in Dumfries town centre.
The house he was born in to, Burns Cottage is now at the centre of a theme-park, the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, in Alloway. One wonders what he would make of it.
There is a replica of Burns Cottage in Atlanta, Georgia.
Further Research
Biographies of Scott include:
The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, by Robert Crawford (2009)
Life of Robert Burns, by Thomas Carlyle (also available as a free e-book)
Robert Burns in Your Pocket: A Biography, and Selected Poems and Songs, of Scotland’s National Poet, by Robert Burns (2009)
Red Rose (2004) is a film about his romantic life. A new biographic film is in the making.
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