Burns, Baby, Burns
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. Burns is still a figure who attracts immense interest and debate. At the heart of interest in him is the quality of his verse whether writing about love, politics or everyday life in the countryside. Around the world people know Auld Lang Syne and perhaps My Love is Like a Red Red Rose or even To A Haggis. Burns is one of the key aspects of the Scottish Government's Homecoming events. The homecoming website likes to talk a lot about branding and corporate sponsorship. Evidence of which I found in Tesco's clearly hoping to shift some haggis and neeps (I got mine from the butcher instead.)
Outside of the surprisingly tough world of Burns academia there is less known about the radical Burns. This Burns was the supporter of the French Revolution and of political liberty. To speak of these things could mean being disappeared to Australia and it required both care and courage to do so. The Burns scholar Patrick Scott-Hogg (below) has uncovered good evidence that points to Burns as the real author of certain poems, articles and letters of the time which side with the radical cause.
Paddy is an academic from Strathclyde University and the author of the Canongate Burns and I went along to the launch of his new book 'The Patriot Bard' at Blackwells in Edinburgh. It proved to be an entertaining and well attended launch for what promises to be a fascinating book.
Paddy painted a picture of Burns that went beyond the cliche of the womaniser and exploded the myth of Burns as intellectually simple man. The radicalism of Burns shines through in one of his greatest works 'A Man's A Man'. Fitting that a quote from that was the last words of German revolutionary Karl Liebknecht as he faced a firing squad in 1919.
"Ye see yon birkie ca'd 'a lord,'
Wha struts, an stares, an a' that?
Tho hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a cuif for a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
His ribband, star, an a' that,
The man o independent mind,
He looks an laughs at a' that."Labels: burns
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| (3) comments
:: Thursday, January 25, 2007 ::
Tatties, Neeps, etc
Robert Burns is Scotland's national poet and it's Burns Night the night. If like me you forgot to get the haggis in, then you can compensate by downloading Camera Obscura's excellent take on his songs.
Get them from the marvellous Perfumed Garden website, dedicated to John Peel sessions from years gone by. Look in the Active Sessions list for Camera Obscura 22/1/2004.
If you are interested in the debate around Burns politics then check this out, or go here to read the wonderful internationalist poem A Man's A Man For A' That.
τLabels: burns, indie, mp3, music, poetry
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