I have chosen to write about the famous poet and lyricist Robert Burns from Scotland in my project. He is very famous Scotland, but also in many other countries, like Russia, but I will come back to this later in my project.
I thought this would be a very relevant topic for this project, because this year Robert Burns has his 250th anniversary. He is tremendously famous for his poetry, and the Scottish people are celebrating the life and works of Robert Burns with contemporary Scottish Culture, in his home town of Ayrshire. And actually they have a year long program with festivals and activities related to Robert Burns’ life and work.
I have mainly focused on Robert Burns’ life, and why he is so famous today. I have also tried to find out more about the celebration of his 250th anniversary, and why he is so famous in especially Russia.
Robert Burns was born the 25th of January 1759, in Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland. He was born into a poor family, and was the oldest of seven children. He was born and raised in a house that now is known as the Burns Cottage Museum that his father made by himself, but when he was seven, his family moved to a farm southeast of Alloway. Burns didn’t go to a regular school for children, he actually got most of his education from his father and a local teacher that was hired to teach him. The local teacher, John Murdoch taught Burns in Latin, French and mathematics. Actually Burns’ career started by working on the family farm, but luckily his father recognised the importance of education, and that was a very good thing, because Burns began to show signs of his writing talent from an early age.
When Burns became older he was early known for his great passion for Scotland, and much of his literary work is written in the Scots language. Burns dynamic and contemporary vision became an important source of inspiration to the founders of both socialism and liberalism. He is also known as the pioneer of the Romantic Movement. Much of the influence for Burns` literary work was gathered from his surroundings. In addition to being a enormous famous poet, and making original compositions, he also collected folk songs from across Scotland.
Robert Burns died in Dumfries the 21st of July, 1796. He was only 37 years old when he died. The funeral took place in Dumfries on 25 July and, Burns was buried with full military honours as a member of the local volunteer militia, the Fencibles. He joined the year before as Britain was at war with France and there was a fear of invasion. A memorial edition of some of Robert Burns literary work was published to raise money for his wife and children, and it didn’t take a very long time before the money started pouring in from all over Scotland to support them.
Burns cottage, where he was born, and lived until he was seven years old.
Robert Burns most famous poems
Burns first became famous in 1786 when he gave out his first works “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect” that probably contained some of his best writing. The success was immediate, and so began his flourishing career in writing, and he was soon well known all over the country. Some of the most famous poems from his first collection are for example “The Twa Dogs” and “To a Mountain Daisy”. As I have mentioned before, Burns didn’t only make original compositions, he also collected folk songs across Scotland. And an example of this is his poem and song “Auld Lang Syne” (1788) that often is sung on the last day of the year, or New Year’s Day. This is probably the most famous poem/song he has written and is well known in many English-speaking countries. The song’s Scots title may be translated into English literally as “long long ago” or “days gone by”. Another song is “Scots Wha Hae” that actually served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of Scotland.
A couple of examples of his most famous poems that now are known across the world is “A Red, Red Rose” and “Tam o’Shanter”.
“My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose” was written in 1794. It is based on traditional sources. An excerpt from the poem:
“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”
“Tam o’Shanter” is written in 1790 and considered as one of Burns’ finest poems. It is about six A4 pages long! This poem uses a mixture of Scots and English. Many also consider this poem as one of the best examples of the narrative poem in modern European literature. It tells a story of a man who stayed too long at a public house and witnessed a disturbing vision on his way home.
Excerpt from the poem:
“When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet;
As market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate,
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.”
Robert Burns 250 year anniversary
As I have told Robert Burns was born in January 1759, so people all over the world are celebrating his 250 year anniversary this year.
In Scotland, Robert Burns home country they have a huge festival this year to celebrate his 250th anniversary. This festival is called Burns an’a’ that! Festival 2009. This is the biggest festival they have had, and its taking place between the 16th of May and Sunday 24th of May. Throughout the week this festival will present over a 100 events for the people visiting the festival. The festival takes place in Burns hometown Ayrshire, but there are also other events around the country. This festival will present some of Scotland’s most famous personalities that are there to honor the famous poet. There will be both family and children’s events, and food and drink events. There are many things that are happening throughout this week, and everyone that is in Scotland and especially in Airshire will see that they have made a huge festival to celebrate the talent of their national poet.
Some of the events and places you can visit during this festival are for example the Burns house museum and the Burns National Heritage Park in Alloway. If you travel just South of Ayrshire you can go to Burns actual birthplace, and this is where he lived until he was seven years old, this is now called the Burns Cottage Museum. You can also go and see where Burn’s father is buried. There will also be events where Burns Works will be read and discussed, and also there will be local storytellers that will be available for “burns’ sessions”.
Robert Burns outside Scotland
Robert Burns is well known all around the world, not just in Scotland. There are many Burns clubs and society’s spread around the world. There are many places around the world were they honor Robert Burns’s life and works, some of these places and countries is Australia, Milwaukee, North-America and Russia.
These places have a great interest in this poet’s life, and honor him in their own ways. In both Australia and Milwaukee they have organized and established many Burns societies and clubs. The Burns’ society in Australia has actually made their own program with activities for those who wants’ to celebrate his anniversary this year, but don’t have the money to travel all the way back to Scotland to do that. There are several events they can visit, and they take place in different towns and cities in Australia.
North-America is also a place were the Burns interest has grown past the years, and there is a possibility that several schools may get to learn more about Burns if they get it to fit inn in their curriculum. In one school in North-America they have already tried to learn the children about Burns, with very good response from the students. They arranged this Burns School competition, and the students really seemed to like this.
Russia is maybe the country that has the biggest interest for Robert Burns. In Russia you can find a large number of Burns Societies and actually many Russians have claimed that there are more Burns clubs in Russia than in Scotland. Robert Burns is very well known for the Russians and all of Burns poetry has been translated into Russian. His poetry is also taught in Russian schools. The former Soviet Union honored the man that they cherished as a working-class hero with a commemorative stamp.
The Consul General of the Russian Federation in Edinburgh, Vladimir Malygin have said that he thinks that it may be Burns’ “people’s poet” status that really fascinate the Russian people. He also tells that all of his poetry is translated into very good Russian, and that Burns is held in so high regard that they actually teach the students about his work alongside their own national poets. He also tells that is was the Russians that were the first to make this stamp with Burns on in 1956.
Conclution
During this project I have learnd a hole lot of new things about Robert Burns and his life and works. I had actually not heard of him before I started to write this assignment. I have learnd that Burns is an extremly well known poet, and not only in his homecountry Scotland, but all over the world. He is well know on an international level, and in many countries he is very highly regarded. I know that his poety is very famous, and that many know and loved the things he wrote about. Like England has William Shakespeare, Scotland has Burns, and I know they do a lot of things to rememer him. I think it’s a very positive thing that they hold festivals, establish scosieties and clubs to remember him, because by doing that there are probably a chance that more people get to know hwo this famous persom was. I think this have been a very interesting project, and I never knew how much intrests there was around the world for Scotlands National Bard, Robert Burns. And I also know now that you can’t think about Scotland without thinking about Robert Burns.
Sources:
http://burns.visitscotland.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns
http://www.scotland.org/about/history-tradition-and-roots/features/culture/scotlands-bard.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_o%27_Shanter_(Burns_poem)
http://programmes.stv.tv/homecoming/robert-burns/72732-russias-love-for-burns-the-socialist-poet/
http://burns.visitscotland.com/festival/
http://www.victorianscottishunion.com/scotlands_homecoming_2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article3690131.ece
http://programmes.stv.tv/homecoming/robert-burns/72732-russias-love-for-burns-the-socialist-poet/
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/burns_canada.htm
Pictures:
http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/robert_burns_1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Geburtshaus_RobertBurns_3_10x15.jpg
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/burns_canada.htm
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