THE CELTIC CONNECTION ; DECEMBER/JANUARY 1994/1995
Page 11
A Rich Legacy Left by 'a Poor Man's Son1
ROBERT BURNS — THE IMMORTAL BARD (1759-1795)
By ROBBIE P. BYRNE
Robert Burns — poet, songwriter, collector of songs, Excise man — was one of Scotland's greatest bards.
American presidents sing Auld Lang Syne, Russian schoolchildren chant A Man's a Man for All That, statues of him stand in cities from Canada to Australia and every year, people throughout the world celebrate his birthday by eating haggis on Burns night.
He was born on January 25,1759, in the clay cottage at Alloway, Dumfries, where he spent the first seven years of his life. He was the eldest of seven children of William Burnes, a market-gardener from Kincardineshire and Agnes Brown from nearby Kirk-oswald.
He grew up in a life of hardship, poverty and toil but his father made sure that he was well educated. He told a correspondent, "I was born a very poor man's son." Even so, he became a legend during his relatively short life of 37 years.
His mother sang him many folk songs as a child but it was his mother's cousin Betty Davidson, who greatly influenced the poet. She had a large collection of songs dealing with devils, ghosts, witches, fairies, wraiths, apparitions, giants, enchanted towers and dragons.
Robert was sent to a school in Alloway, where he developed an excellent command of literary English. He became a freemason in St. David's Lodge, Torbalton, in 1781 and became friends with the likes of the famous Scottish
lawyer, Gavin Hamilton, thus making his debut into Edinburgh society.
Burns had a brilliant and lightening wit; he was a stocky man of five-foot-nine and spellbound the gentry and ladies of Edinburgh. He was fascinated by the mixture of squalor on the streets and the "high" society Redstone buildings, such as Holyrood-house.
Early writers maintain that Burns was a heavy drinker; in fact, he was an abstemious man.
As is the tradition on Burns night, the haggis (minced offal of sheep and oatmeal, boiled in a bag) is carried by the chef, preceded by a piper who plays the haggis to the host at the head of the table. The host then produces a long knife or dirk and says the Selkirk Grace:
Some hue meat an' canna eat an 'some wad eat that want it But we hae meat an' we can eat an 'sae the Lord be thankit.
One Burn's most famous poems was the Tarn 'O Shunter. He is thought to have composed the poem in a fury of creativity while having one day's absence from his job as an excise man.
Tom 'O Shanter, a poem that Burns spent weeks polishing, is an epic odyssey about a farmer,
Tarn, who heads home from Ayr after drinking with a friend. While riding his horse, he comes across a witch in a short shift (flimsy dress). She chases him to the Brig o' Doon Bridge and, since witches can't cross a running stream, catches only the horse's tail.
Thus, Burns warns those who are tempted by shifts (women) and drink, "Think, ye may buy the joys o'er dear/Remember Tarn 'O Shanter's mare."
Early writers maintain that Burns was a heavy drinker; in fact, he (was an abstemious man.
Several natural children survived him and he was a good husband and father. But, it could also be said that he enjoyed the company of other ladies.
He met his wife Jean in 1784, at a local dance. She became pregnant by the end of 1785 and gave birth to twins. He gave her a paper declaring them man and wife; legal procedure in Scotland at that time allowed a marriage by declaration.
In Dumfries, the poet frequented the Globe Inn, where he had a furnished room for stopover nights. The barmaid, Anna Park, bore him a daughter in March 1791. Jean added a son a-week later and said, "Our Robbie should have had two wives." Jean, with great equanimity, looked after Anna's daughter.
In May 1793, the poet moved into a red sandstone house inMillbrae Vennel, now called Burns Street, where he wrote some of his greatest songs.
He was promoted to Acting Supervisor of the Dumfries Excise — a job he didn't like. He soon became the victim of rheumatic fever and with the food shortage in Dumfries at that time, his "family and many other families were without one grain of meal."
In April 1796, Burns was diagnosed by a Doctor Maxwell as suffering from "flying gout." He prescribed bathing as a cure. So the poet would immerse himself up to his armpits in the Solway Firth. Such a remedy was to prove fatal for someone with a serious heart condition.
On July 21, 1796, Robert Burns died. He had a military funeral and two regiments accompanied his coffin to the music of the Dead March from Handel's Saul. His body was buried in the northeast corner of St. Michael's Churchyard.
Ten thousand people came to show their last respects. "Bonnie Jean" his long enduring wife, gave birth to the poet's son Maxwell that same day. She outlived her husband by 38 years.
Robert Burns wrote his own elegy, a beautiful poem in itself, nine years before his death.
Now Robin lies in his last lair, He'll gabble rhyme, nor sing nae mair,
Cauld poverty, wi hungry stare, Nae mair shall fear him; Nor anxious fear, nor cankert care, E'er mair come near him...
MORAY NAIRN AND BANFF
at The Scottish Cultural Centre 8666 Hudson Street _(604) 263-9911
NEW YEAR'S EVE
• Buffet dinner • • Entertainment by Rob Stuart and Friends • • Dancing to Lorraine Smith. Pat Trudell and Tony •
• Pipe in the New Year •
• Meet our First Foot •
• Taste the Haggis and Shortbread • TICKETS $35 CaU 980-0950 or 532-6014 or 263-0911
BURNS SUPPER Saturday, January 21
• Buffet dinner — Roast beef. Haggis and Neeps •
• Immortal Memory, Address to Haggis •
• Dancing to Garioch Blend Band from Scotland •
TICKETS $35 Call 980-0950 or 532-6014 or 263-9911
A TASTE OF BURNS
Friday, January 27 — 8 PM
Informal Burns Supper with Haggis. Neeps and Tatties Address to Haggis. Burns Songs and Recitations Dancing to Garioch Blend Band from Scotland TICKETS $15 Call 929-2748 or 263-9911
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