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Burns Night.

Jan 25, 2019

Image: Robert Burns 1787 portrait by Alexander Nasmyth - wikipedia.org


Today we celebrate the birthday of a Scots hero and poet, Robert Burns according to wikipedia.com.

Robert Burns (aka Robbie Burns, aka Rabbie Burns, aka Scotland's Favorite Son)  [January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796] was a Scottish poet and lyricist. Born into rural poverty, he became a prolific poet who wrote about everyday life using a Scottish vernacular that was already under threat from English in his own lifetime. Burns died at the age of 37, leaving behind a body of work that "recorded and celebrated aspects of farm life, regional experience, traditional culture, class culture and distinctions, and religious practice and belief in such a way as to transcend the particularities of his inspiration", according to the Poetry Foundation.

By far the best-known Burns composition is the traditional New Year's Eve anthem Auld Lang Syne. Other famous works include the epic poem Tam O'Shanter and the romantic A Red, Red Rose.
Burns remains the National Poet of Scotland because Scottish literature ceased with him, thereafter yielding poetry in English or in a pale Anglo-Scots or in inferior and slavish imitations of Burns. In 2009, he was chosen as the greatest Scot in a public vote run by Scottish television. The Robert Burns World Federation website says: "His immortality runs deep in the veins of all Scots, perhaps unknowingly, and he has evolved from mere man to being symbolic of all things Scottish."

Burns Night commemorates the poet's birth in a two-roomed cottage in Alloway, near Ayr, on 25 January, 1759. Many people and organizations hold a Burns Night supper on or around 25 January. The evening centers on the entrance of the haggis, which is usually presented on a platter to the sound of bagpipes. Once the haggis is on the table, the host reads the Address to a Haggis. It includes stirring lines such as: "But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, the trembling earth resounds his tread." At the end of the reading, the haggis is ceremonially sliced into two pieces and the meal begins.

Burns 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 which would have been accessible to a wider audience than simply Scottish people. At various times in his career, he wrote in English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.
 


 


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