About Gale
Title List Changes
Business Development
Press Room
Outside U.S. and Canada
Product Information:
- Catalog
- Database Title Lists
- MARC Records
- Free Trials
- Free Webinars
- Product Reviews
- Product Web Sites
- Imprint Publishers
Customer Service:
Customer Resource Center:
Free Resources:
Poet's Corner
Robert Burns
Read his poem "A Red, Red Rose"
(1759-1796)
Variant Name(s): Rab Mossgiel
(pseudonym)
Nationality: Scottish
Career: Poet,
lyricist, and farmer
Burns was born in Alloway, Scotland in 1759. His father, a poor tenant farmer, tutored his sons at home and sought to provide them with as much additional education as his resouces allowed. An avid reader, Burns acquired a grounding in English before studying the poetry of his Scottish heritage. During his youth Burns endured the hard work and progressively worsening financial difficulties which beset his family as they moved from one rented farm to another. As a young man Burns developed a reputation for charm and wit, engaging in several love affairs that brought him into conflict with the Presbyterian Church. He also angered the church by criticizing such accepted beliefs as predestination and mankind's inherent sinfulness, which he considered incompatible with human nature. In 1786 Burns proposed marriage to Jean Armour, who was pregnant with his twin sons. Her parents rejected his offer and demanded financial restitution. As a result, Burns determined to sail to the West Indies and start a new life. However, with the successful publication that year of his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, Burns abandoned his plans and traveled to Edinburgh, where he was much admired in literary circles. While in Edinburgh Burns met James Johnson, a printer involved in a project to publish all the folk songs of Scotland. Burns subsequently traveled throughout the country, collecting over 300 songs, which were printed in Johnson's six-volume Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803) and George Thomson's five-volume Select Collection of Original Airs for the Voice (1793-1818). Many of the songs he collected were revised or edited by Burns — as with "John Anderson My Jo" — or, in some cases, newly written by him — as with "A Red, Red Rose." One consequence of his journeys around Scotland was his rise to national prominence and popularity. Burns finally married Armour in 1788 and divided his time between writing poetry and farming until he obtained a government position three years later. He died from rheumatic heart disease in 1796.
Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale.
Photo credit