Robert Burns
Posted on 15th January 2025 at 12:33
Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns is considered the national poet of Scotland and he is celebrated every year on the anniversary of his birthday – 25th January – in annual “Burns Night” festivities. His most famous song “Auld Lang Syne” is now sung all over the world to herald the new year.
His song “Ae Fond Kiss” is in the Model Music Curriculum as an example of Scottish traditional song.
We examine how Burns’ life influenced his approach to his poetry and song-writing.
Robert Burns – Life and Times
Robert Burns was born on 25th January 1759 just south of Ayr, in Alloway, Scotland. His family moved when he was 7 to take on the tenancy of a farm, and Burns grew up in poverty, with limited schooling. His early education came from his father and then John Murdoch and the Dalrymple Parish School; however, his education was interrupted by the family’s need for his help on the farm.
Burns remained a tenant farmer for much of his life, but this was a period of change, with developments in agricultural processes which disadvantaged farmers who did not own the land they worked on. This hard life and the stark difference between the “haves” and “have nots” inspired Burns to write poetry and songs.
Burns’ background and occupation helped to build his reputation as a “typical Scot” or “everyman”. He lived in a period of great change in Scotland and his work encapsulates the challenges Scottish people faced and a desire for a better future. The poem “The Cotter’s Saturday Night” captures the traditional way of life of a tenant farmer which was already dying out, but the lifestyle is portrayed in an idealised way, without dwelling on the hardships endured.
Burns’ first published work, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, was printed in Kilmarnock in 1786 and paid for by subscriptions. This “Kilmarnock edition” collected works written over the previous two years and mixed traditional Scottish approaches to poetry with inspiration from English writers such as Alexander Pope and John Milton. The work’s dissemination again highlighted Burns’ position at a pivotal moment in Scottish culture – taking advantage of modern print methods while still embracing the traditional, intimate sharing of the oral tradition.
The publication of the Kilmarnock edition took Burns away from his farm and turned him into a public figure. He went to Edinburgh and arrived as cultural nationalism was championing Scottish creatives. A new, altered and expanded edition of his poems led to him being feted by Edinburgh society.
During his time in Edinburgh, he was inspired by engraver James Johnson, who was aiming to publish all the tunes of Scotland – the work became The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803), made up of six volumes. This motivated Burns to focus on writing songs, and to help with the collection of traditional melodies. It can be difficult to separate Burns’ original works from the traditional songs. Again, this highlights the pivotal point in history that Burns lived and created in.
Burns was aware of his role in saving tradition and had great pride in Scottish culture. In a letter of 1790 he comments: “let our National Music preserve its native features.—They are, I own, frequently wild, & unreduceable to the more modern rules; but on that very eccentricity, perhaps, depends a great part of their effect.”
Poems and Songs
Many of Burns’ poems and songs were inspired by aspects of farm life, regional experience, traditional culture, class culture and distinctions, and religious practice, while many others were inspired by women.
Burns reflected on the influence of Scottish tradition in a letter he wrote to Dr John Moore in August 1787:
“In my infant and boyish days too, I owed much to an old Maid of my Mother’s, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity and superstition.—She had, I suppose, the largest collection in the county of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, giants, inchanted towers, dragons and other trumpery.—This cultivated the latent seeds of Poesy.”
Burns seemed aware of his position at a cultural crossroads, and in his poem “Halloween” he adds footnotes to explain the customs referred to in the poem.
One of Burns’ best known poem is “Tam o’ Shanter”, written as a contribution to Francis Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland (1789-1791). It tells the tale of Tam who, after a night at a tavern comes across a witches’ Sabbath. This work draws on Scottish legend and is captured in a traditional way, suggesting the oral tradition.
Another poem that has stood the test of time is “To a Haggis,” in praise of the traditional Scottish food.
The poem may well have influenced the status of Haggis as the symbol of Scottish cuisine.
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm.
Ae Fond Kiss
Burns’ song Ae Fond Kiss is listed in the Model Music Curriculum as an example of Scottish folk music.
Burns wrote the song and sent it to Agnes McLehose on 27th December 1791. The song expresses Burns’ distress at the end of their relationship.
The words, as a poem, have the highly regular structure, meter, and rhyme scheme of a song lyric, and Burns intended it to be set to the tune of “Rory Dall’s Port” but it is now set to various melodies, including “Mo run an diugh mar an dé thu” (“My Love Today as Heretofore”).
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.
I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy:
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met-or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweel alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Burns Night
The annual celebration of Burns began a century after his birth and now is a key Scottish tradition. The event focuses on the Burns supper: a meal with haggis as a central feature, addressed with “To a Haggis”. After the meal there are two speeches which have the titles “To the Immortal Memory” and “To the Lasses”. The contents of the speeches are variable, but usually balance praise of Burns as a man and his humanity with a humorous reference to his love of women. The evening typically ends with Burns’ most well-known song, “Auld Lang Syne”.
Further Reading
Share this post:
