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Robert
Burns is the national poet of Scotland. In his poems
Burns sang the beauty and the glory of his native
land.
Burns
was born in Alloway, near Ayr, on 25 of January 1759.
His father, a small farmer, was a hard-working man. When
Robert was 6, he was sent to a school at Alloway Miln.
Robert and his brother Gilbert were given a good
knowledge of English. They progressed rapidly in reading
and writing.
For
some years Burns worked on the family field, plugging
and reaping. The combination of hard physical labour and
poor food in his youth that brought about the first
symptoms of the heart disease which troubled him for
much of his life and from which he died.
Burns wrote his first poem at the age of 14 for a
girl who worked with him in the fields. After father’s
death he immigrated to Jamaica. His most creative years
were probably 1785 and 1786. During this period Burns
wrote his most brilliant poems. Burns published his
poems in August 1786. The success was great.
Soon,
in April 1787, a second edition of his poems appeared in
Edinburgh; 3000 copies were printed – a very large
number for those times!
Now
Burns had the opportunity to see more of his native land
which he so dearly loved. He visited some historic
places, which made a great impression on him.
During the last 5 years of his life Burns wrote
some of his best poems and songs. After a short illness
he died on 21 July 1796. |
