Poems and Songs
by Robert Burns
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This title includes all of Burns' poems and songs, with a helpful glossary explaining difficult words, a chronology of Burns's life and a bibliography.Tags
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Member Reviews
What a gift Burns had for rhyme and meter. He makes it look so easy and spontaneous. The book has lots of social commentary with poems written as open letters to his contemporaries and epitaphs for the deceased. He eulogized the living and the dead in verse. He commented on current political and religious debates in verse. This was in additional to the usual topics of life, death, and romance chronicled by all poets. There is also much in praise of the delights of love, flesh, drink, and the working class. He was a rural farmer who never forgot his roots, or, more accurately his plow and barn dances, and especially what you might do when the dancing was over.
This edition contains the nearly complete lyrical works of Scotland’s most show more famous poet. A few recently discovered verses and some of the more raunchy erotic lyrics, such as “Brose and Butter” are missing, but the volume is still a poetic banquet with a glossary of Scots words, and indexes by first line and title. show less
This edition contains the nearly complete lyrical works of Scotland’s most show more famous poet. A few recently discovered verses and some of the more raunchy erotic lyrics, such as “Brose and Butter” are missing, but the volume is still a poetic banquet with a glossary of Scots words, and indexes by first line and title. show less
Hard to read, hard to understand, but oh how they connect me with my Scottish heritage. This edition offers a lovely glossary in the back to help with the dialect.
Fantastic collection of a fantastic poet's work: much better and more complete than anything else out there I've seen. It's worth tracking down if you're a Burns fan.
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Author Information
527+ Works 5,987 Members
Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland, on January 25, 1759. He received little formal education, but he enjoyed reading and he became familiar with the writings of such authors as Dryden, Milton, and Shakespeare. Burns worked long hours with his father, a tenant farmer. The frustration of watching his father's show more struggles on the farm is said to have inspired his satirical poetry. When his father died in 1784, Burns moved the family to the farm Mossgiel about one mile north of the town of Mauchline. Here he continued to work as a farmer and to write poetry. In 1786 Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was published, which described the existence of the Scottish peasant. Burns's popularity was immediate, if short-lived. After a brief period of fame in Edinburgh, Burns returned to Ayrshire. Burns married Jean Armour in 1788. They moved first to a farm in Ellisland, then to Dumfries, where Burns worked as a tax inspector. In addition to his poetry, Burns is well known for his songwriting. He worked with James Johnson on a project to revise old Scottish tunes and created some new songs of his own. Some favorites include Auld Lang Syne, To a Mountain Daisy, and Tam o' Shanter. Robert Burns died of rheumatic fever on July 21, 1796, at the age of 37. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Poems and Songs
- Alternate titles
- Songs and poems
- Epigraph
- Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of others, this is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, this is my measure of iniquity. Burns.
- Dedication
- To George Maine: A man cannot be measured by the colour of his skin, or by his speech, or by his clothes and jewels, but only by his heart.
From SINUHE THE EGYPTIAN by Mika Waltari - First words
- When lyart [withered] leaves bestrow the yird [yard/ground],
Or, wavering like the bauckie-bird, Bedim cauld Boreas' blast; - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)ON THE AUTHOR : He who of Rankine sang {in reply to an obituary, p. 246}, lies stiff and deid, And a green, grassy hillock hides his heid: Alas! alas! a devilish change indeed!
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- Members
- 1,055
- Popularity
- 24,202
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.95)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Scots
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 41
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 69