Robert Burns

 Date of birth - 25 January 1759  Date of death - 21 July 1796  Also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and The Bard  National poet of Scotland

Robert Burns  He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language.  Pioneer of the Romantic movement  Strong influence on Scottish literature  Collected folk songs from across Scotland

Robert Burns  His poem Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay  Scots Wha Hae served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country.  Other poems A Red, Red Rose; A Man's A Man for A' That; To a Louse; To a Mouse; The Battle of Sherramuir; Tam o' Shanter, and Ae Fond Kiss.

Robert Burns  Burns was born two miles south of Ayr, in Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland  the eldest of the seven children of William Burness and Agnes Broun  Received most of his education from his father

Education  R. Burns was housetaught  He was also taught by John Murdoch  Dalrymple Parish School 1772  In 1775, he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald, where he met Peggy Thomson

Love affairs  Elizabeth Paton  Jean Armour  Mary Campbell (Highland Mary)

Ellisland Farm  Burns returned to Ayrshire on 18 February 1788  Resumed his relationship with Jean Armour  Took a lease on the farm of Ellisland near Dumfries on 18 March  Gave up the farm in 1791  Refused to become a candidate for a newly- created Chair of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh

Lyricist  After giving up his farm he removed to Dumfries itself  It was at this time that, being requested to write lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland  Burns also worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs at that time  One of the better known of these collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia

Failing health and death  As his health began to give way, Burns began to age prematurely and fell into fits of despondency  His death was probably caused by bacterial infection reaching his blood  On the morning of 21 July 1796, Robert Burns died in Dumfries at the age of 37

Failing health and death  The funeral took place on Monday 25 July 1796  He was at first buried in the far corner of St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries  His body was eventually moved in September 1815 to its final resting place, in the same cemetery, the Burns Mausoleum

Literary style  Burns' poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity and knowledge of Classical, Biblical, and English literature, as well as the Scottish Makar tradition.  His themes included republicanism and Radicalism which he expressed covertly in Scots Wha Hae, Scottish patriotism, anticlericalism, class inequalities

Influence  He influenced William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley greatly.  His direct literary influences in the use of Scots in poetry were Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson.  Burns would influence later Scottish writers, especially Hugh MacDiarmid

My Heart’s In The Highlands  My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer - A- chasing the wild deer, and following the roe; My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.  Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North The birth place of Valour, the country of Worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

My Heart’s In The Highlands  Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forrests and wild-hanging woods; Farwell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.  My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe; My heart's in the Highlands, whereever I go.

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