Robert Burns :: Essays Papers

Robert Burns A Biography of Robert Burns Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and writer of traditional Scottish folk songs. He was born on January 25, 1759 in Alloway, Ayrshire. Burns was the oldest of seven children born to William Burness and his wife Agnes Broun. His father was the descendant of a line of tenant farmers. His wife was also eldest daughter of a tenant farmer. Burns’ parents were both not very well educated, but were deeply religious. When Burns was born, his father worked as a gardener. However, the family grew too large for their cottage at Alloway and their needs to great for his father to support as a gardener. His father then decided to try his hand at farming and moved his family to the farm of Mount Oliphant. At Mount Oliphant, Burns engaged in difficult farm work and suffered from undernourishment, which lead to permanent injury to his health. His father next moved the family to the farm of Lochlea where Burns’ father, William, died in February 1784. Burns was then left as head of the family. He and his brother Gilbert decided to rent Mossgiel Farm that later proved to be another failure. Although his family struggled, Burns managed to obtain an education. At the age of six, Burns and his brother Gilbert were sent to John Murdoch’s School in Alloway. In 1768 Burns and his brother left the school and Burns briefly boarded as a pupil of John Murdoch at Ayrshire Grammar School in 1773. Through Murdoch’s influence, Burns read Shakespeare, Milton, Pope and Dryden. However, a great deal of Burns’ education took place in his own home. He was encouraged in his self-education by his father and his mother acquainted him with Scottish folk songs, legends, and proverbs. Burns also read widely in English literature, the Bible, and learned to read French. Burns’ literary career began with the Vernacular Poems. In 1784 Burns read the works of the Edinburgh poet Robert Ferguson. Under his influence and that of Scottish folk tradition and older Scottish poetry, he became aware of the literary possibilities of the Scottish regional dialects. During the next two years he produced most of his best-known poems, including â€Å"The Cotter’s Saturday Night,† â€Å"Hallowe’en,† â€Å"To a Daisy,† and â€Å"To a Mouse.† In addition, he wrote â€Å"The Jolly Beggars,† a cantata in standard English, which is considered one of his masterpieces. Several of his poems, notably â€Å"Holy Willie’s Prayer,† satirized local ecclesiastical squabbles and attacked Calvinist theology, which brought him into conflict with the church.