A Life of Robert Burns

As is too often the case with
poets, the life of Scotlandï¿1/2s Robert Burns was filled with tragedy and hardship.
Yet, this did not detract from his poetry; rather, it fed his talent for it.
Even his death mirrored the adversity of his life. On July 26, 1796, on the same
day that his wife gave birth to their ninth child, Robert Burns, the bard of
Scotland, was buried, thirty-seven years old and in debt.

More remarkable than his death was
his life . . . the life that made the man that made the poetry. Born on January
25, 1759, in Alloway, in the district of Kyle, in Ayrshire, Scotland. The son of
a farmer, Burns, beginning at age nine, worked the field and farmyard, while
subsisting on a diet of only oatmeal and skimmed milk. Yet, even at this young
age, his curiosity and imagination were strong, fueled by the stories of an
elderly relative of his motherï¿1/2s, who had ï¿1/2the largest collection in the country
of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches,
warlocks.ï¿1/2

Later in life, Burns, enamored with
the power of words, founded the Tarbolton Bachelors, a debating society. He also
began to write. He wrote loveletters for those who could not. He wrote verse on
scraps of paper. Too, Burns was enamored with the ladies, and more than once he
fathered a child out of wedlock, adding that public humiliation to his misery.
Throughout it all, he wrote. This common man wrote extraordinary poetry using
ordinary, everyday speech, and, so doing, found his voice . . . a voice that
spoke from his heart, his soul, a voice that spoke for Scotland to the world.