Robert Burns

the late 18th century England.
He was born into a poor

Scottish peasant family.

known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet,

the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland.

HIS LIFE

the seven children of William Burness

(now the Burns Cottage Museum), where he lived until Easter

1766, when he was seven years old.

Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, however, his casual love affairs did not endear him to the elders of the local kirk and created for him a reputation for dissoluteness amongst his neighbours.

to support his family. He lived in great poverty all

his life.
He was a poetic genius. He had an aptitude for Scottish folk songs.

Jolly Beggars, Halloween, Holy Willie’s Prayer, to a mouse, the

two dogs and others.
Burns travelled a lot about Scotland collecting popular folk songs.
Many of his poems were put to music.

of Burns are written in the Scottish dialect on a

variety of subjects.

1) Political poems
2) Satirical poems
3) Lyrics

Mainly, 3 kinds

Examples

loved are :
Ae Fond Kiss
A Red Red Rose
Tam

O’Shanter
Address to the Haggis
Tae a Moose
A Man’s a Man for A’ That and
Auld Lang Syne

in 1796

rose», is one of the most loved lyrical songs.
Many

of songs he devoted to his wife.
Burns songs are the soul of music.
Beethoven, Schuman, Mendelssohn, others compose music to the poets verses.

people’s lives.

He wrote about the national struggle

of the Scottish people for their liberation from English oppression.

Burns considered his literary work as his patriotic duty.

had 11 children with 4 different women
He said ‘ The

sweetest hours that ere I spent were spent amang the lasses o’

drink , dancing , poetry and song.