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1. Robert Burns’ Biography
Robert Burns is a poet of Scotland. He wrote his best poems in Scottish dialect. His favourite characters are ordinary Scots. They are poor, work hard, but they prefer every wealth a pure heart that knows no greed, any deceit but true loves, free from calculation. Robert Burns was born January 25, 1759, in a straw-thatched cottage, to William and Agnes Burns. His mother had a great store of folklore songs and ballads, and his father tried at all costs to surround his children with good reading and conversation. At the age of seven, his father moved the family to Mt. Otiphant from Alloway. In 1773, at the age of only 15, Robert composed his first song, Handsome Nell, in honor of the village blacksmith’s daughter. Since childhood Robert had read the Bible, English Augustianska poets (Pope, Edison, Swift and Steele) and Shakespeare. From his father Robert learnt to understand people. Robert’s mother, Agnes, knew many old songs and ballads of the countryside. In the evenings she told her children folk-tales. He admired mother’s singing traditional Scots songs and a distant cousin, Betty Davidson, told him the tales about ghosts and witches. In 1777 family moved to Lochlea. In 1778, Robert was fortunate enough to have a summer term of schooling at Kirkoswald. Returning to the farm, he composed Poor Mailie’s Elegy, Winter, and other early pieces, under a blooming interest to become a poet of the people, or as he put it, "a Scottish bard." In 1784 his father died, and Robert, with his brother Gilbert, moved to Mossgiel, in Mauchline. Most of Robert’s best work was accomplished here. At the age of 26, Robert helped his brother out on the farm. Every chance he got, during the day, he would pull his book out of his pocket and begin to read, and think out themes. At night, he climbed up into his attic room, where he wrote his thoughts down before going to bed. He wrote ballads, epistles, epitaphs, satires, and dedications. He wrote about winter, spring, and summer, rivers, braes, and uplands. He wrote about anything, and everything, that could have ever passed his mind working through those hard days on his farm.
After his father’s death, twenty-year-old Robert became a head of the family. He still worked tirelessly on the farm, and in the evenings often went to dance with the local beauties, to whom he devoted so many poems. Here Robert met seventeen-year-old Jean, the daughter of a rich and harsh contractor, who became his destiny, his love for all his life. That summer, the first summer of their love, Robert wrote many of his best works: it seems that he even forgot how to speak prose, he seemed to breathe poetry. One of his poems was "A Red, Red Rose”. In April 1787 the second edition of Bums’ poems appeared in Edinburgh. It brought him money and gave him an opportunity to see more of his native land. Robert made several trips around the country and saw beautiful landscapes and lochs of the Highlands. He visited some historical places, which made a great impression on him. The poem «My Heart's in the Highlands» was the result of his tour. The last years of the poet were very difficult. He left farming and with the help of his friends got a job in Dumfries, where he bought a house. In 1795 he became seriously ill and owed a large sum. Autumn 1795 and winter 1796 were fatal for Robert Burns. He died on the 21st of July.
Walter Scott called Robert Burns, a poor peasant who became an outstanding artist of the word," the most extraordinary of people " and "the most brilliant poet of Scotland". As a man and as a poet, Burns was shaped by the cross-influences of two national cultures, Scottish and English. Their interaction has long, after the Union English became the national language and Scottish was relegated to the level of dialect. Robert Burns was able to rise above the slave worship of English culture, and over the national limitation, was able to incorporate into his poetry all the best of both literary traditions, in his own way understanding and synthesizing them The formation of the poet's creative method proceeded in the conditions of struggle with outdated canons and dogmas. Creating his own method Burns could not be calculated with the past, to overcome the impact of the naive metaphysical materialism.
Creativity of Robert Burns consists of hundreds of poems, songs and letters. Most of the works are the result of his inspiration, but some have been reworked old and partially lost works of the Scottish people. His poems about love are written in simple accessible language and are full of tenderness and true charm.
Through the poems of Robert Burns, we can learn more about the era in which the writer lived and worked, learn some perhaps unknown to him facts from the history of the country, which gave life to a wonderful poet.
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