Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly asRabbie Burns,[a] was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as thenational poet ofScotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in theScots language, although much of his writing is in a "lightScots dialect" of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
He is regarded as a pioneer of theRomantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of bothliberalism andsocialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among theScottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a nationalcharismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong onScottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channelSTV.
He was born in a house built by his father (now theBurns Cottage Museum). On January 26, 1759, the day after he was born Robert Burns was baptised in theAuld Kirk of Ayr by minister William Dalrymple.[6][7] Burns went on to live in the cottage untilEaster 1766, when he was seven years old. William Burnes sold the house and took the tenancy of the 70-acre (280,000 m2) Mount Oliphant farm, southeast of Alloway. Here Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, and the severe manual labour of the farm left its traces in a weakened constitution.[8]
A depiction of the Burns family inside the Burns Cottage
He was given irregular schooling and a lot of his education was with his father, who taught his children reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history and also wrote for themA Manual of Christian Belief.[8] He was also taught and tutored by the young teacher John Murdoch (1747–1824), who opened an "adventure school" in Alloway in 1763 and taught Latin, French, and mathematics to both Robert and his brotherGilbert (1760–1827) from 1765 to 1768 until Murdoch left the parish. After a few years of home education, Burns was sent to Dalrymple Parish School in mid-1772 before returning at harvest time to full-time farm labouring until 1773, when he was sent to lodge with Murdoch for three weeks to study grammar, French, and Latin.[9]
By the age of 15, Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant.[10] During the harvest of 1774, he was assisted byNelly Kilpatrick (1759–1820), who inspired his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass". In 1775, he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald, where he metPeggy Thompson (born 1762), to whom he wrote two songs, "Now Westlin' Winds" and "I Dream'd I Lay".
Tarbolton
Despite his ability and character,William Burnes was consistently unfortunate, and migrated with his large family from farm to farm without ever being able to improve his circumstances.[8] AtWhitsun, 1777, he removed his large family from the unfavourable conditions of Mount Oliphant to the 130-acre (0.53 km2) farm atLochlea, nearTarbolton, where they stayed until William Burnes's death in 1784.[11] Subsequently, the family became integrated into the community of Tarbolton. To his father's disapproval, Robert joined a country dancing school in 1779 and, with Gilbert, formed theTarbolton Bachelors' Club the following year. His earliest existing letters date from this time, when he began making romantic overtures toAlison Begbie (b. 1762). In spite of four songs written for her and a suggestion that he was willing to marry her, she rejected him.
Robert Burns wasinitiated into theMasonic lodge St David, Tarbolton, on 4 July 1781, when he was 22.[12] In December 1781, Burns moved temporarily toIrvine to learn to become aflax-dresser, but during the workers' celebrations forNew Year 1781/1782 (which included Burns as a participant) the flax shop caught fire and was burnt to the ground. This venture accordingly came to an end, and Burns went home to Lochlea farm.[8] During this time he met and befriendedRichard Brown, who encouraged him to become a poet. He continued to write poems and songs and begana commonplace book in 1783, while his father fought a legal dispute with his landlord. The case went to theCourt of Session, and Burnes was upheld in January 1784, a fortnight before he died.[13]
Robert and Gilbert made an ineffectual struggle to keep on the farm, but after its failure they moved toMossgiel Farm, nearMauchline, in March, which they maintained and resided in from 1785.[14] In mid-1784 Burns came to know a group of girls known collectively as The Belles of Mauchline, one of whom wasJean Armour, the daughter of astonemason from Mauchline.[15]
Jamaica Job Offer
Burns had encountered financial difficulties due to his lack of success as a farmer. In order to make enough money to support a family, he accepted a job offer from Patrick Douglas, anabsentee plantation owner who lived inCumnock, to work on hissugar plantations nearPort Antonio,Jamaica. Douglas' plantations were managed by his brother Charles, and the job offer, which had a salary of £30 per annum, entailed working in Jamaica as a "book-keeper", whose duties included serving as anassistant overseer to theBlack slaves on the plantations (Burns himself described the position as being "a poor Negro driver").[16] The position, which was for a single man, would entail Burns living on a plantation in rustic conditions, as it was unlikely a book keeper would be housed in the plantation'sgreat house.[17][18] Some historians have argued in Burns's defence that in 1786, theScottish abolitionist movement was just beginning to be broadly active.[19][20] Burns's authorship of "The Slave's Lament", a 1792 poem argued as an example of his abolitionist views, is disputed. His name is absent from any abolitionist petition written in Scotland during the period, and according to academic Lisa Williams, Burns "is strangely silent on the question of chattel slavery compared to other contemporary poets. Perhaps this was due to his government position, severe limitations on free speech at the time or his association with beneficiaries of the slave trade system".[21][22]
Love affairs
Burns's first child,Elizabeth "Bess" Burns, was born to his mother's servant,Elizabeth Paton, while he was embarking on a relationship withJean Armour, who became pregnant with twins in March 1786. It is likely that Burns gave Jean a courting ring in 1786.[23] Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to Jean, but her father "was in the greatest distress, and fainted away". To avoid disgrace, her parents sent her to live with her uncle inPaisley. Although Armour's father initially forbade it, they were married in 1788.[24] Armour bore him nine children, three of whom survived infancy.[25]
Around the same time, Burns fell in love with a woman namedMary Campbell, whom he had seen in church while he was still living in Tarbolton. She was born nearDunoon and had lived inCampbeltown before moving to work in Ayrshire. He dedicated the poems "The Highland Lassie O", "Highland Mary", and "To Mary in Heaven" to her. His song "Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia's shore?" suggests that they planned to emigrate to Jamaica together. Their relationship has been the subject of much conjecture, and it has been suggested that on 14 May 1786 they exchanged Bibles andplighted their troth over theWater of Fail in a traditional form of marriage. Soon afterwards Mary Campbell left her work in Ayrshire, went to the seaport ofGreenock, and sailed home to her parents in Campbeltown.[17][18] In October 1786, Mary and her father sailed from Campbeltown to visit her brother in Greenock. Her brother fell ill withtyphus, which she also caught while nursing him. She died of typhus on 20 or 21 October 1786 andwas buried there.[18]
Kilmarnock volume
Title page of the Kilmarnock Edition
As Burns lacked the funds to pay for his passage to Jamaica, Gavin Hamilton suggested that he should "publish his poems in the meantime by subscription, as a likely way of getting a little money to provide him more liberally in necessaries for Jamaica." On 3 April Burns sent proposals for publishing hisScotch Poems to John Wilson, a printer inKilmarnock, who published these proposals on 14 April 1786, on the same day that Jean Armour's father tore up the paper in which Burns attested his marriage to Jean. To obtain a certificate that he was a free bachelor, Burns agreed on 25 June to stand forrebuke in the Mauchline kirk for three Sundays. He transferred his share in Mossgiel farm to his brother Gilbert on 22 July, and on 30 July wrote to tell his friend John Richmond that, "Armour has got a warrant to throw me in jail until I can find a warrant for an enormous sum ... I am wandering from one friend's house to another."[26]
Burns postponed his planned emigration to Jamaica on 1 September, and was at Mossgiel two days later when he learnt that Jean Armour had given birth to twins. On 4 SeptemberThomas Blacklock wrote a letter expressing admiration for the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume, and suggesting an enlarged second edition.[27] A copy of it was passed to Burns, who later recalled, "I had taken the last farewell of my few friends, my chest was on the road to Greenock; I had composed the last song I should ever measure in Scotland – 'The Gloomy night is gathering fast' – when a letter from Dr Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes, by opening new prospects to my poetic ambition. The Doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause I had not dared to hope. His opinion that I would meet with encouragement in Edinburgh for a second edition, fired me so much, that away I posted for that city, without a single acquaintance, or a single letter of introduction."[29]
Edinburgh
This manuscript copy of 'Address to Edinburgh' written in Burns's hand, was sent in 1787 to Lady Henrietta Don (nee Cunningham), sister to Earl of Glencairn. The manuscript is now part of the Laing Collection at the University of Edinburgh.
On 27 November 1786 Burns borrowed a pony and set out forEdinburgh. On 14 December William Creech issued subscription bills for the first Edinburgh edition ofPoems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect, which was published on 17 April 1787. Within a week of this event, Burns had sold his copyright to Creech for 100 guineas.[27] For the edition, Creech commissionedAlexander Nasmyth to paint the oval bust-length portrait now in theScottish National Portrait Gallery, which was engraved to provide a frontispiece for the book. Nasmyth had come to know Burns and his fresh and appealing image has become the basis for almost all subsequent representations of the poet.[30] In Edinburgh, he was received as an equal by the city's men of letters—including Dugald Stewart, Robertson, Blair and others—and was a guest at aristocratic gatherings, where he bore himself with unaffected dignity. Here he encountered, and made a lasting impression on, the 16-year-oldWalter Scott, who described him later with great admiration:
[His person was strong and robust;] his manners rustic, not clownish, a sort of dignified plainness and simplicity which received part of its effect perhaps from knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His features are presented in Mr Nasmyth's picture but to me it conveys the idea that they are diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his countenance was more massive than it looks in any of the portraits ... there was a strong expression of shrewdness in all his lineaments; the eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament. It was large, and of a dark cast, and literally glowed when he spoke with feeling or interest. [I never saw such another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most distinguished men of my time.][31]
The new edition of his poems brought Burns £400. His stay in the city also resulted in some lifelong friendships, among which were those withLord Glencairn, andFrances Anna Dunlop (1730–1815),[31] who became his occasional sponsor and with whom he corresponded for many years until a rift developed. He embarked on a relationship with the separatedAgnes "Nancy" McLehose (1758–1841), with whom he exchanged passionate letters under pseudonyms (Burns called himself "Sylvander" and Nancy "Clarinda"). When it became clear that Nancy would not be easily seduced into a physical relationship, Burns moved on toJenny Clow (1766–1792), Nancy's domestic servant, who bore him a son, Robert Burns Clow, in 1788. He also had an affair with a servant girl,Margaret "May" Cameron. His relationship with Nancy concluded in 1791 with a final meeting in Edinburgh before she sailed to Jamaica for what turned out to be a short-lived reconciliation with her estranged husband. Before she left, he sent her the manuscript of "Ae Fond Kiss" as a farewell.[32]
In Edinburgh, in early 1787, he metJames Johnson, a struggling music engraver and music seller with a love of old Scots songs and a determination to preserve them. Burns shared this interest and became an enthusiastic contributor toThe Scots Musical Museum. The first volume was published in 1787 and included three songs by Burns. He contributed 40 songs to volume two, and he ended up responsible for about a third of the 600 songs in the whole collection, as well as making a considerable editorial contribution. The final volume was published in 1803.[33]
On his return from Edinburgh in February 1788, he resumed his relationship with Jean Armour and they married in March 1788. He took out a lease on Ellisland Farm, Dumfriesshire, settling there in June. He also took up a training position as anexciseman or gauger, which involved long rides and detailed bookkeeping. He was appointed to duties in Customs and Excise in 1789. Burns chose the land of Ellisland a few miles north of the town ofDumfries, from Patrick Miller's estate at Dalswinton, where he had a new farmhouse and byre built. He and Jean moved in the following summer 1789 to the new farmhouse at Ellisland.In November 1790, he had written his masterpiece, the narrative poem "Tam O' Shanter". (The Ellisland farm, beside the river Nith, now holds a unique collection of Burns's books, artifacts, andmanuscripts. It is mostly preserved as when Burns and his young family lived there.[34]) Burns gave up the farm in 1791 to move to Dumfries.
About this time he was offered and declined an appointment in London on the staff ofThe Star newspaper,[35] and refused to become a candidate for a newly created Chair of Agriculture in theUniversity of Edinburgh,[35] although influential friends offered to support his claims.[31] He did however accept membership of theRoyal Company of Archers in 1792.[36]
After giving up his farm, he removed to Dumfries. It was at this time that, being requested to write lyrics forThe Melodies of Scotland, he responded by contributing over 100 songs.[31] He made major contributions toGeorge Thomson'sA Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice as well as to James Johnson'sScots Musical Museum.[citation needed] Arguably his claim to immortality chiefly rests on these volumes, which placed him in the front rank oflyric poets.[31] As a songwriter he provided his own lyrics, sometimes adapted from traditional words. He put words to Scottish folk melodies and airs which he collected, and composed his own arrangements of the music including modifying tunes or recreating melodies on the basis of fragments. In letters he explained that he preferred simplicity, relating songs to spoken language which should be sung in traditional ways. The original instruments would befiddle and the guitar of the period which was akin to acittern, but the transcription of songs for piano has resulted in them usually being performed in classical concert or music hall styles.[37] At the 3 weekCeltic Connections festivalGlasgow each January, Burns songs are often performed with both fiddle and guitar.
Thomson as a publisher commissioned arrangements of "Scottish, Welsh and Irish Airs" by such eminent composers of the day asJoseph Haydn andLudwig van Beethoven, with new lyrics. The contributors of lyrics included Burns. While such arrangements had wide popular appeal,[38][39][40][41] Beethoven's music was more advanced and difficult to play than Thomson intended.[42][43]
Burns described how he had to master singing the tune before he composed the words:
Burns House in Dumfries, Scotland
My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment, correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then chuse my theme, begin one stanza, when that is composed—which is generally the most difficult part of the business—I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom, humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. when I feel my Muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper, swinging, at intervals, on the hind-legs of my elbow chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my, pen goes.
Burns also worked to collect and preserve Scottishfolk songs, sometimes revising, expanding, and adapting them. One of the better known of these collections isThe Merry Muses of Caledonia (the title is not Burns's), a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in themusic halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century. At Dumfries, he wrote his world famous song "A Man's a Man for A' That", which was based on the writings inThe Rights of Man byThomas Paine, one of the chief political theoreticians of theAmerican Revolution. Burns sent the poem anonymously in 1795 to theGlasgow Magazine. He was also a radical for reform and wrote poems for democracy, such as – "Parcel of Rogues to the Nation" and the "Rights of Women".
Many of Burns's most famous poems are songs with the music based upon older traditional songs. For example, "Auld Lang Syne" is set to the traditional tune "Can Ye Labour Lea", "A Red, Red Rose" is set to the tune of "Major Graham" and "The Battle of Sherramuir" is set to the "Cameronian Rant".
Political views
The death room of Robert Burns
Burns alienated some acquaintances by freely expressing sympathy with the French,[44] and American Revolutions, for the advocates of democratic reform and votes for all men and theSociety of the Friends of the People which advocated Parliamentary Reform. His political views came to the notice of his employers, to which he pleaded his innocence. Burns met other radicals at the Globe Inn Dumfries. As an Exciseman he felt compelled to join theBritish Volunteer Corps'sRoyal Dumfries Volunteers in March 1795.[45]
Failing health and death
Latterly Burns lived in Dumfries in a two-storey red sandstone house on Mill Hole Brae, now Burns Street. The home is now a museum. He went on long journeys on horseback, often in harsh weather conditions as anExcise Supervisor, and was kept very busy doing reports. The father of four young children, he was also frequently occupied as a song collector andsongwriter.
As his health began to give way, he aged prematurely and fell into fits of despondency.[44]Rumours of intemperance (alleged mainly by temperance activistJames Currie)[46][47] may have been overstated.[48] Hard manual farm labour earlier in his life may have damaged Burns's health.[49]Burns possibly had a long-standing rheumatic heart condition,[50] perhaps beginning when he was 21, and a bacterial infection, possibly arising from a tooth abscess, may have exacerbated this.[51]
On the morning of 21 July 1796, Burns died in Dumfries, at the age of 37.
The funeral took place on Monday 25 July 1796, the day that his son Maxwell was born. He was at first buried in the far corner of St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries; a simple "slab of freestone" was erected as his gravestone by Jean Armour, which some felt insulting to his memory.[52] His body was eventually moved to its final location in the same cemetery, the Burns Mausoleum, in September 1817.[53] The body of his widow Jean Armour was buried with his in 1834.[50]
After Burns' death
Robert Burns Mausoleum at St Michael's churchyard inDumfries
Armour had taken steps to secure his personal property, partly by liquidating two promissory notes amounting to £15 (about £1,100 at 2009 prices).[54] The family went to the Court of Session in 1798 with a plan to support his surviving children by publishing a four-volume edition of his complete works and a biography written by James Currie. Subscriptions were raised to meet the initial cost of publication, which was in the hands of Thomas Cadell and William Davies in London and William Creech, bookseller in Edinburgh.[55] Hogg records that fund-raising for Burns's family was embarrassingly slow, and it took several years to accumulate significant funds through the efforts ofJohn Syme andAlexander Cunningham.[50]
Burns was posthumously given thefreedom of the town of Dumfries.[46] Hogg records that Burns was given the freedom of the Burgh of Dumfries on 4 June 1787, 9 years before his death, and was also made an Honorary Burgess of Dumfries.[56]
Through his five surviving children (of 12 born), Burns has over 900 living descendants as of 2019.[57]
Cast of the skull of Scottish poet Robert Burns after his exhumation in 1834. Held at the Anatomical Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Armour died on 26 March 1834 and was interred into the Burns Mausoleum on 31 March 1834. The temporary reopening of the mausoleum provided an opportunity to exhume Burns body by a local group who believed inphrenology, a pseudo-science whose practitioners believed an individual's personality could be predicted by measuring the skulls.[58]
The night before Armour's funeral, the group was supposedly granted permission to exhume Burns's body by her brother, Robert Armour. They were led by Archibald Blacklock, a surgeon, and John McDiarmid,Dumfries Courier editor and phrenologist. Other group members included Adam Rankine, James Kerr, James Bogie, Andrew Crombie and their assistants.
The group attempted to enter the mausoleum at 7pm, but there were many people present in the graveyard and they decided to try again later that evening. The skull was removed and taken to James Fraser, a local plasterer of Queensbury Street, Dumfries. The skull was later returned to the tomb.
A plaster cast was sent toGeorge Combe, a Scottish lawyer and practitioner of phrenology based in Edinburgh. Combe published a report about his findings, entitled 'Phrenological development of Robert Burns. From a cast on his skull moulded at Dumfries, the 31st day of March, 1834'.[59]
Number of plaster casts
It is unknown how many casts were made by Fraser, with some sources reporting three were made.[60] Six casts are known though some may be copies of the original cast.
Burns's style is marked by spontaneity, directness, and sincerity, and ranges from the tender intensity of some of his lyrics through the humour of "Tam o' Shanter" and the satire of "Holy Willie's Prayer" and "The Holy Fair".[31]
Burns's poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity with and knowledge ofClassical,Biblical, andEnglish literature, as well as the ScottishMakar tradition.[64] Burns was skilled in writing not only in theScots language but also in theScottish English dialect of the English language. Some of his works, such as "Love and Liberty" (also known as "The Jolly Beggars"), are written in both Scots and English for various effects.[65]
The strong emotional highs and lows associated with many of Burns's poems have led some, such as Burns biographer Robert Crawford,[67] to suggest that he suffered frommanic depression—a hypothesis that has been supported by analysis of various samples of his handwriting. Burns himself referred to suffering from episodes of what he called "blue devilism". TheNational Trust for Scotland has downplayed the suggestion on the grounds that evidence is insufficient to support the claim.[68]
Influence
Britain
Burns is generally classified as a proto-Romantic poet, and he influencedWilliam Wordsworth,Samuel Taylor Coleridge, andPercy Bysshe Shelley greatly. His direct literary influences in the use of Scots in poetry wereAllan Ramsay andRobert Fergusson. The Edinburgh literati worked to sentimentalise Burns during his life and after his death, dismissing his education by calling him a "heaven-taught ploughman". Burns influenced later Scottish writers, especiallyHugh MacDiarmid, who fought to dismantle what he felt had become a sentimental cult that dominated Scottish literature.
Burns had a significant influence onAlexander McLachlan[69] and some influence onRobert Service. While this may not be so obvious in Service's English verse, which is Kiplingesque, it is more readily apparent in his Scots verse.[70]
Scottish Canadians have embraced Robert Burns as a kind of patron poet and mark his birthday with festivities. 'Robbie Burns Day' is celebrated fromNewfoundland and Labrador[71] toNanaimo.[72] Every year, Canadian newspapers publish biographies of the poet,[73] listings of local events[74] and buffet menus.[75] Universities mark the date in a range of ways:McMaster University library organized a special collection[76] andSimon Fraser University's Centre for Scottish Studies organized a marathon reading of Burns's poetry.[77][78]Senator Heath Macquarrie quipped of Canada's first Prime Minister that "While the lovable [Robbie] Burns went in for wine, women and song, his fellow Scot,John A. did not chase women and was not musical!"[79] 'Gung Haggis Fat Choy' is a hybrid ofChinese New Year andRobbie Burns Day, celebrated inVancouver since the late 1990s.[80][81]
In January 1864, PresidentAbraham Lincoln was invited to attend a Robert Burns celebration by Robert Crawford; and if unable to attend, send a toast. Lincoln composed a toast.[82]
An example of Burns's literary influence in the US is seen in the choice by novelistJohn Steinbeck of the title of his 1937 novel,Of Mice and Men, taken from a line in the second-to-last stanza of "To a Mouse": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Burns's influence on American vernacular poets such asJames Whitcomb Riley andFrank Lebby Stanton has been acknowledged by their biographers.[83] When asked in 2008 for the source of his greatest creative inspiration, singer-songwriterBob Dylan selected Burns's 1794 song "A Red, Red Rose" as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life.[84]
The authorJ. D. Salinger used protagonist Holden Caulfield's misinterpretation of Burns's poem "Comin' Through the Rye" as his title and a main interpretation of Caulfield's grasping to his childhood in his 1951 novelThe Catcher in the Rye. The poem, actually about a rendezvous, is thought by Caulfield to be about saving people from falling out of childhood.[85]
Russia
Burns became the "people's poet" of Russia. InImperial Russia Burns was translated into Russian and became a source of inspiration for the ordinary, oppressed Russian people. InSoviet Russia, he was elevated as the archetypal poet of the people. As a great admirer of the egalitarian ethos behind theAmerican andFrench Revolutions who expressed his own egalitarianism in poems such as his "Birthday Ode for George Washington" or his "Is There for Honest Poverty" (commonly known as "A Man's a Man for a' that"), Burns was well placed for endorsement by theCommunist regime as a "progressive" artist. A new translation of Burns begun in 1924 bySamuil Marshak proved enormously popular, selling over 600,000 copies.[86] The USSR honoured Burns with a commemorative stamp in 1956. He remains popular in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.[87]
Honours
Landmarks and organisations
Statue of Burns in Dumfries town centre, unveiled in 1882
Burns clubs have been founded worldwide. The first one, known as The Mother Club, was founded inGreenock in 1801 by merchants born inAyrshire, some of whom had known Burns.[88] The club set its original objectives as "To cherish the name of Robert Burns; to foster a love of his writings, and generally to encourage an interest in the Scottish language and literature." The club also continues to have local charitable work as a priority.[89]
Burns's birthplace in Alloway is now aNational Trust for Scotland property called theRobert Burns Birthplace Museum. It includes: the humble Burns Cottage where he was born and spent the first years of his life, a modern museum building which houses more than 5,000 Burns artefacts including his handwritten manuscripts, the historic Alloway Auld Kirk and Brig o Doon which feature in Burns's masterpiece 'Tam o Shanter', and the Burns Monument which was erected in Burns's honour and finished in 1823.His house in Dumfries is operated as the Robert Burns House, and the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries features more exhibits about his life and works.Ellisland Farm inAuldgirth, which he owned from 1788 to 1791, is maintained as a working farm with a museum and interpretation centre by the Friends of Ellisland Farm.
Significant 19th-century monuments to him stand in Alloway, Leith, and Dumfries. An early-20th-century replica of his birthplace cottage belonging to theBurns Club Atlanta stands inAtlanta,Georgia. These are part of a largelist of Burns memorials and statues around the world.
InQuincy, Massachusetts at 37-45 Granite St. is a statue of Burns by sculptor John Horrigan, better known for hisTitanic Memorial (Washington, D.C.), which depicts Burns with a book standing by a sheaf of wheat; it was dedicated in 1925.
There is a statue of Burns inThe Octagon, Dunedin, in the same pose as the one in Dundee. Dunedin's first European settlers were Scots; Thomas Burns, a nephew of Burns, was one of Dunedin's founding fathers.
In November 2012, Burns was awarded the title Honorary Chartered Surveyor[92] by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the only posthumous membership so far granted by the institution.
The oldest statue of Burns is in the town ofCamperdown, Victoria.[93] It now hosts an annual Robert Burns Scottish Festival in celebration of the statue and its history.[94]
The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to honour Burns with a commemorative stamp, marking the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956.[96]
The UK postal service, theRoyal Mail, has issued postage stamps commemorating Burns three times. In 1966, two stamps were issued, priced fourpence and one shilling and threepence, both carrying Burns's portrait. In 1996, an issue commemorating the bicentenary of his death comprised four stamps, priced 19p, 25p, 41p and 60p and including quotes from Burns's poems. On 22 January 2009, two 1st class stamps wereissued by the Royal Mail to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Burns's birth.[97]
Burns was pictured on theClydesdale Bank £5 note from 1971 to 2009.[98][99] On the reverse of the note was a vignette of afield mouse and awild rose in reference to Burns's poem "To a Mouse". The Clydesdale Bank's notes were redesigned in 2009 and, since then, he has been pictured on the front of their £10 note.[99] In September 2007, the Bank of Scotland redesigned their banknotes to feature famous Scottish bridges. The reverse side of new £5 features Brig o' Doon, famous from Burns's poem "Tam o' Shanter", and pictures the statue of Burns at that site.[100]
In 1996, the Isle of Man issued a four-coin set of Crown (5/-) pieces on the themes of "Auld Lang Syne", Edinburgh Castle, Revenue Cutter, and Writing Poems.[101] Tristan da Cunha produced a gold £5 Bicentenary Coin.[102]
In 1976, singerJean Redpath, in collaboration with composerSerge Hovey, started to record all of Burns's songs, with a mixture of traditional and Burns's own compositions. The project ended when Hovey died, after seven of the planned twenty-two volumes were completed. Redpath also recorded four cassettes of Burns's songs (re-issued as 3 CDs) for theScots Musical Museum.[104]
In 1996, a musical about Burns's life calledRed Red Rose won third place at a competition for new musicals in Denmark. Robert Burns was played byJohn Barrowman. On 25 January 2008, a musical play about the love affair between Robert Burns and Nancy McLehose entitledClarinda premiered in Edinburgh before touring Scotland.[105][106] The plan was thatClarinda would make its American premiere in Atlantic Beach, FL, at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre on 25 January 2013.[107]Eddi Reader has released two albums,Sings the Songs of Robert Burns andThe Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition, about the work of the poet.
Alfred B. Street wrote the words and Henry Tucker wrote the music for a song calledOur Own Robbie Burns[108] in 1856.
"Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" – cutting the haggis at aBurns supper
Burns Night, in effect a secondnational day, is celebrated on Burns's birthday, 25 January, withBurns suppers around the world, and is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day,St. Andrew's Day. The first Burns supper in TheMother Club in Greenock was held on what was thought to be his birthday on 29 January 1802; in 1803 it was discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was 25 January 1759.[89]
The format of Burns suppers has changed little since. The basic format starts with a general welcome and announcements, followed withthe Selkirk Grace. After the grace comes the piping and cutting of thehaggis, when Burns's famous "Address to a Haggis" is read and the haggis is cut open. The event usually allows for people to start eating just after the haggis is presented. At the end of the meal, a series of toasts, often including a 'Toast to the Lassies', and replies are made. This is when the toast to "the immortal memory", an overview of Burns's life and work, is given. The event usually concludes with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne".
^Burns is also known by various other names andepithets. These include theNational Bard,Bard of Ayrshire, thePloughman Poet,Scotland's favourite son, and simplythe Bard.[1][2]
^abcHogg, PS (2008).Robert Burns. The Patriot Bard. Edinburgh : Mainstream Publishing.ISBN978-1-84596-412-2. p. 321.
^"Burns fell ill in 1781 when he was 21 and developed what is thought to have been acute rheumatic fever. Before he died, it was noted that he had slowed down, complained repeatedly of joint pains and lost weight remarkably fast.Purdie said Burns's rheumatic fever led to a weakened heart, which eventually killed him. But his rapid decline may have begun with toothache.He told the podcast host, NTS president Jackie Bird: “The problem which occurs through toothache is apical root abscess – a highly infectious and very dangerous condition in the root of a tooth where bacteria spill from the tooth into the bloodstream and if you've got a heart which is affected by the long term effects of rheumatic fever then there's going to be a problem."https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2023/08/the-fake-news-about-rabbie-burns/#
^Rumens, C (16 January 2009)."The Bard, By Robert Crawford".Books. London: The Independent.Archived from the original on 18 January 2009. Retrieved10 June 2009.
^Robert Burns and Friends (Essays by W. Ormiston Roy Fellows presented to G. Ross Roy), Patrick Scott & Kenneth Simson, eds., Book Surge Publishing, 2012,ISBN978-1439270974, Chapter "Alexander McLachlan: 'The Robert Burns' of Canada", contribution of Edward J. Cowan, pp. 131–149
^Crawford, Robert. "The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress."Robert Crawford to Abraham Lincoln, Saturday, 23 January 1864 (Invitation to attend Robert Burns celebration). 23 January 1864.http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/malquery.htmlArchived 19 February 2018 at theWayback Machine (accessed 20 January 2013). Lincoln's toast: seeCollected Works, VIII, 237.
^See,e.g., Paul Stevenson, "Stanton—the Writer with a Heart" inAtlanta Constitution, 1925 January 18, p. 1; republished byPerry, LL; Wightman, MF (1938),Frank Lebby Stanton: Georgia's First Post Laureate, Atlanta: Georgia State Department of Education, pp. 8–14
^Michaels, S (6 October 2008)."Bob Dylan: Robert Burns is my biggest inspiration".The Guardian. London.Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved11 June 2009.Dylan has revealed his greatest inspiration is Scotland's favourite son, the Bard of Ayrshire, the 18th-century poet known to most as Rabbie Burns. Dylan selected A Red, Red Rose, written by Burns in 1794.
^"J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye".Sparknotes.Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved14 July 2010.When [Holden] tries to explain why he hates school, she accuses him of not liking anything. He tells her his fantasy of being "the catcher in the rye," a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff. Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the poem that he took the image from: Robert Burns's poem says "if a body meet a body, coming through the rye," not "catch a body."
^"Burns Biography". Standrews.com. 27 January 1990. Archived fromthe original on 11 December 2004. Retrieved10 June 2009.
^Trew, J (10 April 2005)."From Rabbie with love". Scotsman.com Heritage & Culture.Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved10 June 2009.
^"Hall of Heroes".National Wallace Monument. Retrieved27 October 2025.
^"MERCURY – Burns".Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.USGS. Retrieved23 September 2024.Origin: Robert; Scottish national poet (1759–1796).
Bibliography
Burns, R (1993).Bold, A (ed.).Rhymer Rab: An Anthology of Poems and Prose. London: Black Swan.ISBN1-84195-380-6.
Burns, R (2003). Noble, A; Hogg, PS (eds.).The Canongate Burns: The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns. Edinburgh: Canongate Books.ISBN1-84195-380-6.
