DOCSLIB.ORG

THE POEMS of ROBERT BURNS Contents

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE POEMS of ROBERT BURNS Contents THE POEMS OF ROBERT BURNS contents 1. The Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie 1783 2. Poor Mailie’s Elegy 1783 3. Address To The Deil 1785 4. Death And Doctor Hornbook 1785 5. Holy Willie’s Prayer 1785 6. Scotch Drink 1785 7. The Cottar’s Saturday Night 1785 8. The Holy Fair 1785 9. To A Mouse 1785 10. The Epistle to John Lapraik 1785 11. The Epistle to James Smith 1786 12. The Epistle to A Young Friend 1786 13. A Bard’s Epitaph 1786 14. To A Haggis 1786 15. Address To The Unco Guid 1786 16. On A Scotch Bard 1786 17. The Auld Farmer’s New-Year Morning Salutation 1786 18. To A Louse 1786 compilation and explanations by Dillon O’Toole 0 19. To A Mountain Daisy 1786 20. The Twa Dogs 1786 21. Tam O’ Shanter 1790 22. The Structure of the Poems 23. Robert Burns Language 24. Robert Burns Stanza compilation and explanations by Dillon O’Toole 1 1. The Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie 1783 Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie, The Author's Only Pet Yowe As Mailie, an' her lambs thegither, (together) Was ae day nibbling on the tether, (one day) Upon her cloot she coost a hitch, An' owre she warsl'd in the ditch: Molly is nibbling on the tether (attaché) when she threw a hitch (probably un noeud) over her hoof and over she wrestled into the ditch. Molly has got caught up in the rope which is used to tie her up but in struggling to free her hoof she has ended up in the ditch. There, groaning, dying, she did lie, When Hughoc he cam doytin by. Hughhoc came doddering by. To dodder is to move like an old person. Wi' glowrin een, and lifted han's Poor Hughoc like a statue stan's; Poor Hughoc stands like a statue with staring eyes and lifted hands He saw her days were near-hand ended, But, wae's my heart! he could na mend it! He saw the end was near for her but more’s the pity there was nothing he could do He gaped wide, but naething spak, he stood open-mouthed but said nothing At langth poor Mailie silence brak. at length poor Mollie broke the silence "O thou, whase lamentable face Appears to mourn my woefu' case! You there whose sad face seems to pity/to grieve for my sad/sorrowful predicament My dying words attentive hear, An' bear them to my Master dear. Listen carefully to my dying words and report them/ take them back to my dear master "Tell him, if e'er again he keep As muckle gear as buy a sheep- tell him if ever again he keep as much money to buy a sheep/if ever he has enough money to buy a sheep with O, bid him never tie them mair, command him never tie them more Wi' wicked strings o' hemp or hair! with wicked strings (made out of) hemp or hair. Horse hair was often used to make string. and hemp is chanvre I think But ca' them out to park or hill, An' let them wander at their will: But drive them out to the parks or hill and let them wander around where they please So may his flock increase, an' grow To scores o' lambs, an' packs o' woo'! to scores (a score = 20) of lambs and a pack of wool = twelve stones of wool. A pound is about 450g I think but I’m not sure. Fourteen pounds = 1 stone. Well what it means is that if the flock increases it will produce a lot of wool. By the way we say a flock of geese as well. "Tell him, he was a Master kin', An' aye was guid to me an' mine; tell him he was a kind master and always good to me and mine. This expression me and mine which means me and my family is still sometimes used. compilation and explanations by Dillon O’Toole 2 An' now my dying charge I gie him, My helpless lambs, I trust them wi' him. And now my dying charge I give him (her charge is her lambs) I trust them with him. "O, bid him save their harmless lives, Frae dogs, an' tods, an' butcher's knives! From dogs and foxes and the butcher’s knives But gie them guid cow-milk their fill, Till they be fit to fend themsel'; But give them their fill of good cow’s milk until they are fit (old enough/strong enough) to fend for themselves (se débrouiller) An' tent them duly, e'en an' morn, Wi' taets o' hay an' ripps o' corn. And heed them (look after) duly evening and morning with small quantities of hay (foin) and handfuls of corn from the sheaf. (gerbe) "An' may they never learn the gaets, Of ither vile, wanrestfu' pets- And may they never learn the manners of other vile, dangerous pets To slink thro' slaps, an' reave an' steal To slink (slip) through gaps in the hedges and rob and steal At stacks o' pease, or stocks o' kail! from stacks (piles mais stack of hay = meule de foin) or stocks of cabbages So may they, like their great forbears, For mony a year come thro the shears: So may they like their great ancestors for many a year come through the shears So wives will gie them bits o' bread, An' bairns greet for them when they're dead. so wives will give them pieces of bread and children cry for them when they are dead "My poor top-lamb, my son an' heir, my poor baby ram, my son and heir O, bid him breed him up wi' care! bid him (my master) breed/raise him up with care An' if he live to be a beast, To pit some havins in his breast! And if he lives to be a beast (in the sense ill-mannered ; this word is often used of a man who is not very kind = malotru) to put some manners in his breast (heart) "An' warn him-what I winna name- and warn him – what I will not name To stay content wi' yowes at hame; to stay contented with ewes at home An' no to rin an' wear his cloots, Like ither menseless, graceless brutes. and not to run and wear out his hooves like other indiscrete, graceless brutes. Grosso modo il faut pas qu’il soit un coureur de jupons "An' neist, my yowie, silly thing, Gude keep thee frae a tether string! And next my little ewe, silly thing, God keep from you a string to tie you up with O, may thou ne'er forgather up, Wi' ony blastit, moorland toop; O may you never take up with/frequent with any blasted moorland ram. (Que tu ne fréquentes n’importe qui!) But aye keep mind to moop an' mell, compilation and explanations by Dillon O’Toole 3 Wi' sheep o' credit like thysel'! But always keep in mind to nibble and mix with sheep of credit like yourself. (find someone of your own class) "And now, my bairns, wi' my last breath, I lea'e my blessin wi' you baith: An' when you think upo' your mither, Mind to be kind to ane anither. And now, my children, with my last breath, I leave my blessing with you both. And when you think upon your mother mind (be careful) to be kind to one another "Now, honest Hughoc, dinna fail, To tell my master a' my tale; Now, honest H do not fail (make sure) to tell my master all my tale An' bid him burn this cursed tether, An' for thy pains thou'se get my blether." and command/order him to burn this cursed (maudit) tether and for your pains you have got my blether = silly talk This said, poor Mailie turn'd her head, And clos'd her een amang the dead! Molly turned her head and closed her eyes among the dead compilation and explanations by Dillon O’Toole 4 2. Poor Mailie’s Elegy 1783 Preliminary observation : this poem is called an elegy but it does not have the classic structure of an elegy. Gray’s Elegy for example is in quatrains and uses anapest. This poem is written in the typical Burns Stanza. There are 8 sextains with aaabab rhyme scheme. The a lines have four feet and the b lines two. The stress pattern is mainly iambic. Mailie is Molly in English and both names are variants of Mary. Lament in rhyme, lament in prose, To say lament is quite formal and ceremonious and as a general rule the more words are from Romance language the more formal the tone. Wi' saut tears trickling down your nose; (salty) Our bardie's fate is at a close, Past a' remead! However the formal opening is quickly counterbalanced by the very informal image of the salt tears and the use of the word ‘bardie’. This implies that the bard is a local figure and is considered with affection. His fate/destiny is sealed/final and beyond all remedy/cure. The last, sad cape-stane o' his woes; The last sad copestone of his troubles. The copestone = la Pierre de faîte and figuratively it is the summit/height = comble Poor Mailie's dead! Every stanza ends with the word dead and an exclamation mark so this gives the impression of the sound of the death knell (le glas) which a bell tolls (verb used for the striking of the bell in a church) in a small community to announce the death of somebody.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Robert Burns in American Cultural Memory, C. 1840-1866
    University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of Society and Culture 2018-04 The Burnsian Palimpsest: Robert Burns in American Cultural Memory, c. 1840-1866 Sood, A http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/11284 Symbiosis: a journal of anglo-american literary relations All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. The Burnsian Palimpsest: Robert Burns in American Cultural Memory, c. 1840- 1866 The memory of Burns…The west winds are murmuring it… Ralph Waldo Emerson (Ballantine 1959: 37) ~ Cultural memory reaches back into the past only so far as the past can be reclaimed as ‘ours’… Jan Assmann (Assmann 2008: 111) Introduction Arguably more so than any other eighteenth-century literary figure, the political and popular legacy of Robert Burns has been continually contested, revised and appropriated to various ends. As recently as the 2015 UK General Election, the Scottish branch of the right-wing populist United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) attempted to win the hearts (if not the minds) of Scottish voters by producing posters emblazoned with lines from Burns’s ‘The Dumfries Volunteers’;1 while, previously, the opposing Scottish Nationalist Party strategically launched an electoral campaign on the poet’s birthday (Tempest 2005). Contests were also waged over Burns’s presumed political leanings during the 2014 Scottish Referendum, as he was variably cast as a Unionist or Nationalist across several media outlets (Maddox 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • ROBERT BURNS and PASTORAL This Page Intentionally Left Blank Robert Burns and Pastoral
    ROBERT BURNS AND PASTORAL This page intentionally left blank Robert Burns and Pastoral Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland NIGEL LEASK 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX26DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York # Nigel Leask 2010 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King’s Lynn ISBN 978–0–19–957261–8 13579108642 In Memory of Joseph Macleod (1903–84), poet and broadcaster This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements This book has been of long gestation.
    [Show full text]
  • ROBERT BURNS and FRIENDS Essays by W. Ormiston Roy Fellows Presented to G
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Robert Burns and Friends Robert Burns Collections 1-1-2012 ROBERT BURNS AND FRIENDS essays by W. Ormiston Roy Fellows presented to G. Ross Roy Patrick G. Scott University of South Carolina - Columbia, [email protected] Kenneth Simpson See next page for additional authors Publication Info 2012, pages 1-192. © The onC tributors, 2012 All rights reserved Printed and distributed by CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/900002089 Editorial contact address: Patrick Scott, c/o Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries, 1322 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29208, U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4392-7097-4 Scott, P., Simpson, K., eds. (2012). Robert Burns & Friends essays by W. Ormiston Roy Fellows presented to G. Ross Roy. P. Scott & K. Simpson (Eds.). Columbia, SC: Scottish Literature Series, 2012. This Book - Full Text is brought to you by the Robert Burns Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Robert Burns and Friends by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Author(s) Patrick G. Scott, Kenneth Simpson, Carol Mcguirk, Corey E. Andrews, R. D. S. Jack, Gerard Carruthers, Kirsteen McCue, Fred Freeman, Valentina Bold, David Robb, Douglas S. Mack, Edward J. Cowan, Marco Fazzini, Thomas Keith, and Justin Mellette This book - full text is available at Scholar Commons: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/burns_friends/1 ROBERT BURNS AND FRIENDS essays by W. Ormiston Roy Fellows presented to G. Ross Roy G. Ross Roy as Doctor of Letters, honoris causa June 17, 2009 “The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The Man’s the gowd for a’ that._” ROBERT BURNS AND FRIENDS essays by W.
    [Show full text]
  • November 2020
    ‘The Vision’ The Robert Burns World Federation Newsletter Issue 47 November 2020 I have decided to give the newsletter the title of ‘The Vision’ as a nod to Burns’s poem of that name in which he bemoans the lack of recognition for poets from his native Ayrshire. His vision involves the appearance the muse Coila. However, the critic David Daiches remarked that ‘the poet does not quite know what to do with her when he brought her in.’ In composing this edition of the newsletter, I felt much the same as I didn’t know what I was going to do about the lack of copy which normally flows in unsolicited from around the world. Fortunately, my colleagues on the Board came up trumps and offered various leads for suitable material. It is a pleasure to report on a very successful Tamfest which explored Burns’s famous poem Tam o’ Shanter in great depth. The importance of music in relation to Burns also comes across strongly with a couple of articles highlighting his continuing influence on contemporary performers. Editor In this Issue: Page Halloween - Profile of President Marc Sherland 1-2 - A New Tartan for the Federation 2 Amang the bonie winding banks, - Lesley McDonald elected at President of LABC 2 Where Doon rins, wimpling, clear; - Tamfest 2020 3 - Simon Lamb Performance Poet 3 Where Bruce ance ruled the martial ranks, - Singer Lauren McQuistin 4-5 An’ shook his Carrick spear; - Heritage Item, Burns’s Mother’s Well 5 Some merry, friendly, country-folks - 200 Club 6 - New Burns Selection for Every Day 6 Together did convene, - St Andrew’s Day Lecture 6 To burns their nits, an’ pou their stocks, - Volunteers for Ellisland 7 An’ haud their Hallowe’en - Habbie Poetry Competition 8 - Federation Yule Concert 9 Fu’ blythe that night.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tradition of Theriophily in Cowper, Crabbe, and Burns
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1971 The rT adition of Theriophily in Cowper, Crabbe, and Burns. Rosemary Moody Canfield Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Canfield, Rosemary Moody, "The rT adition of Theriophily in Cowper, Crabbe, and Burns." (1971). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2034. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2034 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 72-3470 CANFIELD, Rosemary Moody, 1927- THE TRADITION OF THERIOPHILY IN COWPER, CRABBE, AND BURNS. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, A \ERQX Company , Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED The Tradition of Theriophily in Cowper, Crabbe, and Burns A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Rosemary Moody Canfield B.A., University of Minnesota, 1949 M.A., University of Minnesota, 1952 August, 1971 PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE TITLE P A G E .............................................. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................ ii ABSTRACT ............................................... iv I. INTRODUCTION....................................... 1 II. THERIOPHILY IN THE WORK OFWILLIAM COWPER .
    [Show full text]
  • Ayrshire Notes Template 3 Sep 03
    No. 37 Spring 2009 ISSN 1474–3531 £2.00 Relief in bronze of John Galt by Robert Bryden 1904 Contributions for the Autumn 2009 issue of Ayrshire Notes, including information about the activities of Member Societies, should be sent before the end of July to Rob Close, 1 Craigbrae Cottages, Drongan, Ayr KA6 7EN, tel. 01292 590273, (email: [email protected]). The print order may be increased to provide additional copies of Ayrshire Notes for members of local societies at cost price by prior arrangement with David Courtney McClure, 7 Park Circus, Ayr KA7 2DJ, tel. 01292 262248. AYRSHIRE NOTES is published in Ayr by AYRSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL & NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY in association with AYRSHIRE FEDERATION OF HISTORICAL SOCIETIES AYRSHIRE NOTES 37, 2009, ISSN 1474–3531 © 2009. The copyright of the articles belongs to the individual authors. Further information about the AANHS (Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society) and its publications will be found on the society’s website: www.aanhs.org.uk AANHS President Kenneth Montgomerie AANHS Secretary Mrs Sheena Andrew, 17 Bellrock Avenue, Prestwick KA9 1SQ. Tel. 01292 479077 AFHS Chairman Kathryn Valentine AFHS Secretary Pamela McIntyre, 5 Eglinton Terrace, Ayr KA7 1JJ. Tel. 01292 280080 Cover illustration Photographed and published by permission of South Ayrshire Council Museums and Galleries Services and by arrangement with Elizabeth Kwasnik, Museums and Galleries Officer. See also the article on page 33. Robert Bryden (1865-1939) was born in Coylton. He began as an apprentice architect in Ayr before going to study art in London, where he worked for many years before returning to Ayr (John Strawhorn, The History of Ayr, Edinburgh 1989, 204).
    [Show full text]
  • 1993 the Digital Conversion of This Burns Chronicle Was Sponsored By
    Robert BurnsLimited World Federation Limited www.rbwf.org.uk August 1993 The digital conversion of this Burns Chronicle was sponsored by Lodge Greenock Kilwinning NoXII Burns Club The digital conversion service was provided by DDSR Document Scanning by permission of the Robert Burns World Federation Limited to whom all Copyright title belongs. www.DDSR.com BURNS CHRONICLE INCORPORATING "THE BURNSIAN" Official Publication of The Burns Federation VOLUME 3 (NEW SERIES) AUGUST 1993 NUMBER 1 PRICE: £1.70 'that greatest of benevolent institutions established in honour of Robert Burns'. - Glasgow Herald. The National Burns Memorial Homes, Mauchline, Ayrshire Created for Deserving Old People - as the most fitting Memorial to Robert Burns EIGHTEEN of these comfortable houses, built at Mauchline, in the heart of the Burns Country, are occupied by deserving old folks, carefully selected from all quarters. Many of the Cottagers left tied houses on retirement with nowhere else to stay. There are no irksome restrictions. They have their own key, their own furniture if they so desire, come and go as they please, and have their own friends calling on them as they wish. The whole aim and object of the scheme is to allow the Cottagers to continue the enjoyment of the quiet comfort of their 'ain fireside' in ideal surroundings. The amenities of the Homes are constantly being improved and added to, and for this purpose MONEY IS ALWAYS REQUIRED WILL YOU PLEASE HELP by sending a donation to : A. J. Campbell, Secretary, Mitchells Roberton George House, 36 North Hanover Street, Glasgow G1 2AD Tel. 041-552-3422 - BURNS CHRONICLE INCORPORATING "THE BURNSIAN" Contents President Charles Kennedy .................
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Burns and a Red Red Rose Xiaozhen Liu North China Electric Power University (Baoding), Hebei 071000, China
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 311 1st International Symposium on Education, Culture and Social Sciences (ECSS 2019) Robert Burns and A Red Red Rose Xiaozhen Liu North China Electric Power University (Baoding), Hebei 071000, China. [email protected] Abstract. Robert Burns is a well-known Scottish poet and his poem A Red Red Rose prevails all over the world. This essay will first make a brief introduction of Robert Burns and make an analysis of A Red Red Rose in the aspects of language, imagery and rhetoric. Keywords: Robert Burns; A Red Red Rose; language; imagery; rhetoric. 1. Robert Burns’ Life Experience Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) is a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is one of the most famous poets of Scotland and is widely regarded as a Scottish national poet. Being considered as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement, Robert Burns became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism after his death. Most of his world-renowned works are written in a Scots dialect. And in the meantime, he produced a lot of poems in English. He was born in a peasant’s clay-built cottage, south of Ayr, in Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland in 1759 His father, William Burnes (1721–1784), is a self-educated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and his mother, Agnes Broun (1732–1820), is the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer. Despite the poor soil and a heavy rent, his father still devoted his whole life to plough the land to support the whole family’s livelihood.
    [Show full text]
  • A Poem Ne Ly Sprung in Fairvie
    A Poem Ne ly Sprung in Fairvie by CLARK AYCOCK ave you ever sung “Auld Lang therefore able to write in the local Ayrshire Syne” on New Year’s Eve? dialect, as well as in “Standard” English. He Or have you ever uttered the wrote many romantic poems that are still phrase, when frustrated, “the recited and sung today, and some of us may best-laid schemes of mice and men…”? remember his songs more easily than we do Did you know that John Steinbeck’s classic his poetry. in a human book Of Mice and Men was based on a line Robert Burns infl uenced many other head, though I in a poem written “To a Mouse”... or that poets including Wordsworth, Coleridge have seen the most a Tam O’ Shanter cap was named aft er a distinguished men of my time.” and Shelley. Walter Scott was also a great A commemorative plate showing character in a poem by that name? And admirer and wrote this wonderful descrip- In the late 1700s, many Scots migrated did you know that singer and songwriter tion of Burns that provides us with a clear from the Piedmont into the mountains of Robert Burns in the center Bob Dylan said his biggest creative impression of the man. “His person was WNC, bringing with them their country's surrounded by characters from inspiration was the poem and song “A strong and robust; his manners rustic, not culture and craft and inherent connection his poems Red, Red Rose”? Yes, we are talking about clownish, a sort of dignifi ed plainness and with Burns.
    [Show full text]
  • Allan Ramsay's Poetic Language of Anglo-Scottish Rapprochement
    Études écossaises 17 | 2015 La poésie écossaise Allan Ramsay’s Poetic Language of Anglo-Scottish Rapprochement Allan Ramsay et le langage du rapprochement anglo-écossais Michael Murphy Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesecossaises/919 DOI: 10.4000/etudesecossaises.919 ISSN: 1969-6337 Publisher UGA Éditions/Université Grenoble Alpes Printed version Date of publication: 25 April 2015 Number of pages: 13-30 ISBN: 978-2-84310-296-7 ISSN: 1240-1439 Electronic reference Michael Murphy, “Allan Ramsay’s Poetic Language of Anglo-Scottish Rapprochement”, Études écossaises [Online], 17 | 2015, Online since 25 April 2016, connection on 15 March 2021. URL: http:// journals.openedition.org/etudesecossaises/919 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesecossaises.919 © Études écossaises Michael Murphy Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale Allan Ramsay’s Poetic Language of Anglo-Scottish Rapprochement Ramsay (1684?–1758), one of the last generation born in an independent Scottish state, was also part of the first generation of Hanoverian Britons; his career began just after the Treaty of Union of 1707. There is a polit- ical tension in his writings: until the 1730s at least he hoped for the resto- ration of an independent, Stuart, Scottish kingdom, but he also worked for Anglo-Scottish reconciliation. The latter was neither a premedit- ated project on his part, nor direct support of the Hanoverian dynasty, their governments, or the terms of the Treaty of Union. It was a slow movement, measured notably through epistolary poems exchanged with Englishmen. These personal, literary contacts helped him to imagine a common future shared by two peoples, or more precisely their elites.
    [Show full text]
  • A Tribute to Robert Burns
    A TRIBUTE TO ROBERT BURNS Robert Burns: January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796 A transcript of the “Immortal Memory” given by David Hunter at the “Oor Club” Burns Lunch on January 8, 2016 www.scottishstudies.com Just seven days ago, as steeple bells ushered in the year 2016, multitudes from all over the world joined in to sing “Auld Lang Syne,” the international anthem of New Year’s Eve. And on January 25, millions of people will be celebrating the 257th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns — the man who, in 1788, wrote the words of “Auld Lang Syne.” So after all these years, just what is it about Robert Burns that has made him stand the test of time and become even more popular, more revered, and just as relevant today as he was over 200 years ago? Well I suppose Burns will mean different things to different people, but the best explanation I’ve heard is that Burns was a man who said what we would like to have said, in a way we would liked to have said it!1 And today we will often hear people quoting Burns quite possibly without even realizing it. A few years ago, President Barack Obama could be heard saying … “We in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’” This was a paraphrase of an earlier speech made by Dr. Martin Luther King back in the 1960’s but Dr. King, in turn, had taken the phrase “man’s inhumanity to man” from the Robert Burns poem “Man was made to Mourn.” And it’s a quote that has been used many times since.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Critical Reviews on Robert Burns;
    EARLY CRITICAL REVIEWS ROBERT BURNS CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILilA-MS SAGE Cornell University Library PR 4338.R82 Early critical reviews on Robert Burns; 3 1924 013 448 000 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013448000 EAKLY CKITICAL KEVIEWS ON BURNS EAKLY CRITICAL REVIEWS ON ROBERT BURNS EDITED BY JOHN D. ROSS, LL.D. ADTHOR OF "A CLUSTER OF POETS, SCOTTISH AND AMERICAN," EDITOR OF "THE MEMORY OF BURNS," "THE BURNS AtMANAC," ETC. GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH WILLIAM HODGE & COMPANY 1900 FEINTED BY WILLIAM HODGE & CO. GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH TO THE ornCEES AND MBMBBES OF tbe Kostbery Burns €lub — : TO THE READER This volume contains the best of the early critical Reviews on Robert Burns. Many of these reviews are difficult to obtain at this date, and I feel confident that the student, as well as the lover of Burns, will appreciate the bringing of them together in this handy and accessible form. The first notice accorded to the poet is not included in the collection, as it contained little of a strictly critical character. It was printed in the Edinburgh Magazine for October, 1786, and opens with the query " Who are you, Mr. Burns ? Will some surly critic say at what university have you been educated? What languages do you understand? What authors have you particularly studied? Whether has Aristotle or Horace directed your taste? Who has praised your poems, and under whose patronage are they published? In short, what qualifications entitle you to instruct or entertain us?" To the questions of such a catechism, perhaps, honest Robert Burns would make no satisfactory answer.
    [Show full text]