ROBERT BURNS (25 January 1759

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ROBERT BURNS (25 January 1759 21 July 1796)
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HIS LIFE

• Robert Burns (25 January 1759 21 July 1796)
  (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite
  son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and
  in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish
  poet and a lyricist. He 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, accessible to an audience beyond
  Scotland.

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• Burns was born in Alloway, South Ayrshire, the
  eldest of the seven children of William Burness

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• He was born in a house built by his father (now
  the Burns Cottage Museum), where he lived until
  Easter 1766, when he was seven years old.

Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, however,
his casual love affairs did not endear him to the
elders of the local kirk and created for him a
reputation for dissoluteness amongst his
neighbours.
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HIS WORKS

• As well as making original compositions, Burns
  also collected folk songs from across Scotland,
  often revising or adapting them. His poem (and
  song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay
  (the last day of the year), and Scots Wha Hae
  served for a long time as an unofficial national
  anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of
  Burns that remain well-known across the world
  today, include A Red, Red Rose, A Man's A Man for
  A' That, Ae Fond Kiss and Tam o' Shanter.

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TAM OSHANTER

• Tam o' Shanter, written in 1790, is one of the
  best examples of the narrative poem in modern
  European literature.
• It tells the story of a man who stayed too long
  at a public house and witnessed a disturbing
  vision on his way home.

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• The sight he sees is Alloway Kirk, ablaze with
  light, where a weird hallucinatory dance
  involving witches and warlocks, open coffins and
  even the Devil himself is in full swing. The
  scene is told with grimly enthusiastic gothic
  attention to detail. Tam manages to watch
  silently until, the dancing witches having cast
  off most of their clothes, he is beguiled by one
  particularly comely female witch, Nannie,
• whose shirt (cutty-sark)
• is too small for her.
• He cannot help shouting
• out in passion
• Weel done, Cutty-sark!
• And in an instant
• all was dark

Auld Kirk
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There is a chase and Tams evident pride in the
ability of his horse is justified as she is able
to help him to "win the key-stone o' the brig".
(Witches and warlocks cannot cross running water.)
They only just make it though, as Nannie, first
among the "hellish legion" chasing, grabs the
horse's tail, which comes off. The poem
concludes Now, wha this tale o' truth shall
read,Ilk man and mother's son, take
heedWhene'er to Drink you are inclin'd,Or
Cutty-sarks rin in your mind,Think ye may buy
the joys o'er dearRemember Tam o' Shanter's
mare
Brig o Doon
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CUTTY SARK

• The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869,
  she served as a merchant vessel (the last clipper
  to be built for that purpose), and then as a
  training ship until being put on public display
  in 1954. She is preserved in dry dock in
  Greenwich, London.

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• The ship is named after the cutty sark (Scots a
  short chemise or undergarment). This was the
  nickname of the fictional character Nannie Dee
  (which is also the name of the ship's figurehead)
  in Robert Burns' 1791 comic poem Tam o' Shanter.
  She was wearing a linen cutty sark that she had
  been given as a child, therefore it was far too
  small for her. The erotic sight of her dancing in
  such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out
  "Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently
  became a well known idiom.

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BRIG O DOON

• Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by
  Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe.
  Songs from the musical, such as "Almost Like
  Being in Love" have become standards.

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• It tells the story of a mysterious Scottish
  village that appears for only one day every
  hundred years, though to the villagers, the
  passing of each century seems no longer than one
  night. The enchantment is viewed by them as a
  blessing rather than a curse, for it saved the
  village from destruction. According to their
  covenant with God, no one from Brigadoon may ever
  leave, or the enchantment will be broken and the
  site and all its inhabitants will disappear into
  the mist forever. Two American tourists, lost in
  the Scottish Highlands, stumble upon the village
  just as a wedding is about to be celebrated, and
  their arrival has serious implications for the
  village's inhabitants.