With an Introduction by Donald McFarlan.
Robert Burns, the most celebrated of all Scottish poets, is remembered with great devotion - his birthday on 25th January provokes fervour and festivity among Scots and many others the world over. Born in 1759 into miserable rustic poverty, by the age of eighteen Burns had acquired a good knowledge of both classical and English literature.
In June 1786 his first collection of verse, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, which included 'To a Mouse' and 'The Cotter's Saturday Night', was greeted with huge acclaim by all classes of society. His later poems and ballads include 'Auld Lang Syne', the beautiful song 'My Love is like a Red Red Rose', 'Highland Mary', 'Scots Wha Hae' and his masterpiece, 'Tam o'Shanter'.
The definitive selection of Robert Burns's best poetry and prose, including some newly discovered verses
There are more statues of Robert Burns in the United States than there are of any American poet. Scotland's favorite poet has been loved by generations of Americans--from Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman to Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and Bob Dylan. Now this book makes Burns's greatest poetry more accessible to American readers than ever before. This is the only comprehensive selection of his work that has discreet line-by-line marginal glossing of the Scots, archaic, and obscure words, allowing readers to understand and enjoy the poems without constantly having to turn to footnotes or a glossary. Newly edited from manuscripts and early printed texts, this definitive, wide-ranging collection also introduces some recently discovered verses--and it is the only edition to present a substantial selection of Burns's important prose writings, including letters and key statements about his art. Edited and annotated by acclaimed Burns biographer Robert Crawford and textual expert Christopher MacLachlan, the book also includes a substantial introduction that puts the poet in biographical, historical, and cultural context. The Best Laid Schemes demonstrates like no other collection why Burns is considered one of the world's greatest poets of love and democracy--and why he continues to entertain, move, and intrigue readers two and a half centuries after his birth.This books is a collection of poetry by Robert Burns. ROBERT BURNS, also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and 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 in a light Scots dialect of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
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The Scottish poet Robert Burns has been idolised and eulogised. He has been sainted, painted, tarted-up and toasted. He is famous as the author of 'Auld Lang Syne', and he has long been the patron saint of the heartsore and the hungover. But what about the poems? Beneath the cult of Burns Nights and patriotic yawps, there is the work itself, among the purest and most truthful created in any age.
This is a Burns collection like no other, introduced, arranged and contextualised by the award-winning novelist and essayist Andrew O'Hagan. Above all, it is an accessible edition made for the pleasure of reading that brings Burns' timeless work to full, riotous, colourful life.Scotsman and poet Robert Burns was born in 1796. His family didn't have much in terms of money, but Burns was still optimistic about life and love. His first poems were songs written to his many lovers, though those were not received well by the mistresses. In 1786, Burns' first anthology Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was released. It contained some of his best works, such as The Twa Dogs and To a Mouse, On Turning Up Her Nest With The Plow. Burns then moved around Scotland and even took up a short residence in Jamaica as a bookkeeper on a plantation. After returning to his native land, Burns settled down in Dumfries and devoted himself to his poems and lyrics. In this phase of his life, Burns became highly invested in collecting and preserving many of the local Scottish hymns and tunes. However, he was also famous for taking his own words and singing them with the melody of traditional Scottish songs. This is the case for Auld Lang Syne and A Red, Red Rose. His poetry and lyrics are still famous to this day, in large part due to his ability to weave seamlessly between emotions. A staunch supporter of republicanism, Burns was a Scottish patriot and believed in equality of all races, classes, and genders. In 2009, he was voted as the most influential and beloved Scot of all time by the people of Scotland. In this volume of Selected Poems you will find a representative selection of his poetry that illustrates why he is widely regarded as Scotland's greatest poet. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.