ROBERT BURNS

In "The Letters of Robert Burns," a rich collection of correspondence unfolds the intimate thoughts of Scotlands national poet. These letters, characterized by their eloquent yet accessible prose, reveal Burnss reflections on love, ambition, and the sociopolitical landscape of 18th-century Scotland. His literary style encompasses elements of Romanticism, with heartfelt expressions of emotion intertwined with keen observations of human nature, thus positioning his work within the broader context of the Scottish Enlightenment as well as the burgeoning Romantic Movement. The collection not only serves as a window into Burnss personal life but also offers insight into his creative processes and the eras cultural dynamics. Robert Burns (1759-1796) was a pivotal figure in Scottish literature, drawing upon his own experiences as a farmer, lover, and political observer. His upbringing in rural Ayrshire instilled in him a deep appreciation for the Scottish landscape and folklore, factors that permeate his correspondences. Writing in a time of significant social change, Burnss letters often articulate his views on the struggles of the common man, echoing the concerns of his contemporaries and revealing the motivations that fueled his poetic voice. This collection is indispensable for readers seeking to dive deeper into the psyche of one of Scotlands most celebrated poets. That personal touch and historical context make "The Letters of Robert Burns" a fascinating read for those interested in the intersection of personal narrative and national identity. It invites readers to connect with Burns not just as a poet laureate, but as a lettrist responding to the world around him.In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience:- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader erasocial currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different works strengths.- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the authors overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.- Lastly, our handpicked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collections central themes.

Robert Burns, one of Scotlands most beloved poets, showcases his talent and versatility in The Complete Works. This comprehensive collection includes poems, songs, and letters that reflect Burnss deep connection to nature, his love for his country, and his keen observations of everyday life. The poetic style is characterized by its simplicity, emotional depth, and themes of love, politics, and the human experience. The lyrical quality of Burnss writing, combined with his use of Scots dialect, adds to the charm and authenticity of his work, making it a timeless classic in Scottish literature. Readers will be captivated by the vivid imagery, heartfelt sentiments, and universal themes that permeate throughout the collection. Robert Burnss The Complete Works offers a profound insight into the poets life and artistic vision. From the humble beginnings of a farmers son to becoming a national literary figure, Burnss personal experiences and social observations greatly influenced his writing. His work reflects the political and cultural climate of late 18th-century Scotland, as well as his own struggles and triumphs. By exploring the depths of human emotion and the beauty of nature, Burns presents a poignant and enlightening perspective on life. The Complete Works is a must-read for anyone interested in Scottish literature, poetry, or the enduring themes of love and humanity.

"The Complete Works" is a collection of poems of the great Scottish poet and folklorist R. Burns (1759 - 1796). The authors poetry is emotional, simple, rhythmic and musical. Initially, many poems were created as songs. He wrote about the life of ordinary people who are sad, happy, afflicted and loved. Their images are always concrete, extremely clear and the tone is sincere. Illustrations by Elena Odarich.

The Merry Muses of Caledonia is among Burns best known, but least read, work. This collection of bawdy poems, some written by and some collected by Burns, ranges from celebrations of spirited women in "Ellibanks", to misogyny in "There was twa wives" and male fantasy in "Nine Inch will please a lady". These engaging poems are not lewd or distasteful but possess a great wit and charm. This new edition updates the 1959 printing, which with engaging accompanying material by James Barke and preface by J. De Lancey Ferguson have made this the definitive version, until now. "The Merry Muses" was always intended to be accompanied by music but the 1959 edition was left incomplete due to Barkes premature death. For the first time the book is completed as it was always meant to be with notes to the tunes created with reference to Barkes unpublished papers. "The Luath Merry Muses" edition also includes bonus material with specially commissioned illustrations from top political satirist Bob Dewar and an introduction by Burns scholar Valentina Bold. Fergusons work is brought up to date with commentary on the latest critical responses. This new edition will make this classic of Burns literature more accessible to modern readers.

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, was the first collection of poetry produced by Robert Burns. Published in Kilmarnock in July 1786 it has become known as The Kilmarnock Edition. The contents include 44 of Burns best known poems including To a Louse, The Cotters Saturday Night, To a Mouse, The Twa Dogs and To a Mountain Daisy. Released in 2009 to celebrate Burns 250th birthday, The Luath Kilmarnock Edition brought this classic of Scottish literature back into print, after being unavailable for many years. New material includes an introduction by the man who played Burns -author, actor and Burns expert -John Cairney, exploring Burns life and work, especially the origins of The Kilmarnock Edition. Looking to the future of Burns in Scotland and the rest of the world, Clark McGinn, world-renowned Burns Supper speaker, provides an afterword that speaks to Burns continuing legacy. Illustrated throughout with original line drawings by top political satirist Bob Dewar, The Luath Kilmarnock Edition makes a beautiful gift for any Burns enthusiast. "This special illustrated edition celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, probably the worlds favourite poet. Poems Cheifly in the Scottish Dialect, the only book of his poetry published in his short lifetime, is probably the most significant book ever published from Scotland. Kilmarnock saw that first edition of a young mans poems published in 1786 and Burns has not beeen out of print for a single day since. We are still reading, reciting and enjoying these poems... the writing, life and character of this Ayrshire ploughman inspire deep human emotion around the globe. - FROM THE AFTERWORD BY CLARK McGINN

Translator: Valter Juva

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 since become the patron saint of the heart-sore and the hung-over. 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: a readers edition, made for the pleasure of reading. Novelist and Scottish essayist Andrew OHagan comes into company with the poet who has mattered most to him in his writing life. He selects the poems for the reader, and converses with the work, offering fragments and distilled commentary of his own. The effect is explosive, giving us Robert Burns at his very best a political Burns, a poet who can name hypocrisy and intolerance, and point directly to the human heart.

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 21 July 1796), also known as Robbie Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire, the Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, 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 also in English and a light Scots dialect, 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.He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.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 Mans a Man for A That", "To a Louse", "To a Mouse", "The Battle of Sherramuir", "Tam o Shanter" and "Ae Fond Kiss".

Robert Burns (1759-1796), also known as the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. This book contains his complete poems, songs, and correspondence, with a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham. Table of Contents: The Life of Robert Burns Poems: Winter. A Dirge The Death and dying Words of poor Mailie Poor Mailies Elegy First Epistle to Davie, a brother Poet Second Address to the Deil The auld Farmers New-year Morning Salutation to his auld Mare Maggie To a Haggis A Prayer under the pressure of violent Anguish A Prayer in the prospect of Death Stanzas on the same occasion A Winter Night Remorse The Jolly Beggars Death and Dr. Hornbook The Twa Herds; or, the Holy Tulzie Holy Willies Prayer Epitaph to Holy Willie The Inventory The Holy Fair The Ordination The Calf To James Smith The Vision Halloween Epitaphs, Epigrams, Fragments: On the Authors On R.A., Esq On a Friend For Gavin Hamilton On wee Johnny On John Dove, Innkeeper, Mauchline On a Wag in Mauchline On a celebrated ruling Elder On a noisy Polemic On Miss Jean Scott Songs and Ballads: Handsome Nell Luckless Fortune Tibbie, I hae seen the day John Barleycorn The Rigs o Barley Montgomerys Peggy The Mauchline Lady The Highland Lassie Peggy The rantin Dog the Daddie ot My Nannie O Bonnie Peggy Alison Green grow the Rashes, O My Jean Robin Young Peggy The Cure for all Care Eliza The Sons of Old Killie And maun I still on Menie doat The Farewell to the Brethren of St. Jamess Lodge, Tarbolton On Cessnock Banks Mary The Lass of Ballochmyle General Correspondence Remarks on Scottish Songs and Ballads The Border Tour The Highland Tour Burnss Assignment of his Works

A captivating collection of poetry from nature s bard

Poems and Songs of Robert Burns Robert Burns - Robert Burns (1759 1796) called himself "an Aeolian harp strung to every wind of heaven." His first volume of poems, entitled Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, was published in 1786. An immediate success, it established Burnss poetic reputation, which has grown over two centuries to the point where he is not only the Scottish national poet but the object of a cult unique in British poetry.The present volume contains 43 of his finest poems and songs, reprinted unabridged from an authoritative tenth-century edition. Included are "The Twa Dogs," a deft satire of the Scottish upper classes; "To a Mouse," one of the poets best known, most charming works; "Address to the Unco Guid," an attack on Puritan hypocrisy; "Holy Willies Prayer," one of the great verse-satires of all times; as well as such favorites as "The Cotters Saturday Night,""To a Mountain Daisy,""The Holy Fair,""Address to the Deil,""The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie," and many more.It is not necessary here to attempt to disentangle or explain away the numerous amours in which he was engaged through the greater part of his life. It is evident that Burns was a man of extremely passionate nature and fond of conviviality; and the misfortunes of his lot combined with his natural tendencies to drive him to frequent excesses of self-indulgence. He was often remorseful, and he strove painfully, if intermittently, after better things. But the story of his life must be admitted to be in its externals a painful and somewhat sordid chronicle. That it contained, however, many moments of joy and exaltation is proved by the poems here printed. Burns poetry falls into two main groups: English and Scottish. His English poems are, for the most part, inferior specimens of conventional eighteenth-century verse. But in Scottish poetry he achieved triumphs of a quite extraordinary kind. Since the time of the Reformation and the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, the Scots dialect had largely fallen into disuse as a medium for dignified writing. Shortly before Burns time, however, Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson had been the leading figures in a revival of the vernacular, and Burns received from them a national tradition which he succeeded in carrying to its highest pitch, becoming thereby, to an almost unique degree, the poet of his people. He first showed complete mastery of verse in the field of satire. In "The Twa Herds,""Holy Willies Prayer,""Address to the Unco Guid,""The Holy Fair," and others, he manifested sympathy with the protest of the so-called "New Light" party, which had sprung up in opposition to the extreme Calvinism and intolerance of the dominant "Auld Lichts." The fact that Burns had personally suffered from the discipline of the Kirk probably added fire to his attacks, but the satires show more than personal animus. The force of the invective, the keenness of the wit, and the fervor of the imagination which they displayed, rendered them an important force in the theological liberation of Scotland. The Kilmarnock volume contained, besides satire, a number of poems like "The Twa Dogs" and "The Cotters Saturday Night," which are vividly descriptive of the Scots peasant life with which he was most familiar; and a group like "Puir Mailie" and "To a Mouse," which, in the tenderness of their treatment of animals, revealed one of the most attractive sides of Burns personality. Many of his poems were never printed during his lifetime, the most remarkable of these being "The Jolly Beggars," a piece in which, by the intensity of his imaginative sympathy and the brilliance of his technique, he renders a picture of the lowest dregs of society in such a way as to raise it into the realm of great poetry