This year, as Burns’ Day approaches, I got to thinking what his work means to me. It covers a wide range of topics and I put some beloved pieces into groupings that made sense to me.
First of all, he was a romantic. Some of his love songs/poems are the most poignant of all. ‘My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose’ is very well known. Here in Greece it was even incorporated into a whisky advert.
Had we never lou’d sae kindly
Had we never lou’d sae blindly
Never lou’d nor never parted
We had ne’er been broken hearted.
Being a country lad, he makes frequent references to nature. In To A Mouse he addresses a wee field mouse, having accidentally ploughed up its nest. He rues this unplanned action and its consequences. His memorable words,
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain
For promised joy!
are resonant to us since John Steinbeck used them as the title of his novel Of Mice and Men.
Burns was very well-read and was greatly affected by writers and thinkers of his age, in the latter part of the Scottish Renaissance, characterized by great intellectual and scientific accomplishments. Two people who inspired him, and whom he described as ‘two sage philosophers’, were Adam Smith and Thomas Reid. Smith, known for his work The Wealth of Nations on politics and economics, was also a moral philosopher. Smith believed we could fully exercise moral judgment on our own actions only by ‘endeavouring to view them with the eyes of other people.’
Always one to poke fun at the airs and graces adopted by the ‘upper crust’, the bard has fun in To A Louse describing the cheek of the wee insect climbing among the ribbons, ‘On seeing a louse on a lady’s bonnet in church’. In this stanza the notion expressed is redolent of Smith’s moral stance:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion;
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us
An’ ev’n devotion!
Burns was aware of John Locke’s liberal ideas as he spoke out for intellectual liberty and tolerance. We can also see the influence of Thomas Reid, philosopher and founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, for Burns’ spoke the language of the common man. He spoke, too, on behalf of his fellow-man, sometimes in a climate of potential danger.
Burns was clearly putting himself at risk when he wrote the following poem, a clear call to arms against England. In 1792 Thomas Muir, a Glasgow lawyer, was charged with inciting the Scottish people to oppose the government. He was sentenced to be transported to Botany Bay colony in Australia for a 14-year stay.
Despite that, in 1793 Burns wrote Scots Wa Hae, inspired by Robert the Bruce who, at Bannockburn in 1314, fought and maintained Scottish sovereignty from England.
Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed,
Or tae victorie.
Lay the proud usurpers low,
Tyrants fall in every foe,
Liberty's in every blow! –
Let us do or dee.
To this day, this song speaks to the Scottish soul and has been adopted as anthem of the Scottish National Party.
Perhaps it’s at social gatherings that the memory of Burns is held most dear. At Burns’ Suppers, held globally in his honour, the Selkirk Grace is said before the traditional haggis dish is sampled. Its words of simplicity, and humanity never fail to move me.
And now for the most universal acknowledgement made to him – though sometimes people are unaware that he was its creator. Burns sometimes collected traditional songs, regularized their metre and set them to music. This was the case with "Auld Lang Syne", a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song. A different melodic version is well known in many countries. Traditionally sung at Hogmanay, it is also sung at funerals, graduations, and as a farewell or ending to other occasions. It praises the value of friendship – something our current climate has made us very aware of.
Should auld
acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?
For auld
lang syne, my dear (Chorus)
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne
And there's
a hand, my trusty friend
And gie's a hand o' thine
And we'll tak a right gude-willy waught
For auld lang syne
Happy Burns’ Day to one and all.
