ROBERT BURNS

Robert Burns was born in 1759 and was the eldest of 7 children, growing up in a life of poverty and hard farm work. His father made sure that his sons were well educated and employed a private tutor to teach them English, French, Latin, and even Philosophy. It was the kind of education that rich children of the day might have had, certainly not the son of a poor farmer.

When Robert wasn't having lessons he would help his father on the farm. In his spare time he started to write poetry. In 1784 Robert's father died leaving Robert with his mother, and the rest of the family, to support. The farm was a failure, the crops wouldn't grow and to make matters worse, Robert had fallen in love with Jean Anna.

They wanted to marry but Jean's father disapproved. Burns was a poor farmer with little money and not good enough for his daughter.

Burns was fed up and planned to emigrate from Scotland to Jamaica and in order to make some money for the voyage he decided to print some of his poems. When Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was published, Burns became famous overnight and editions appeared all over the world.

Burns didn't just write poems, he was Scotland's first collector of folk songs. In 1787 he set off on a journey around Scotland, jotting down fragments of old songs like Auld Lang Syne, often rewriting them into the versions we know today.

In 1788 Burns and Jean Arma married and went to live at Ellisland Farm. There he wrote his famous Тат О 'Shanter — a tale of a farmer who, after a night of drinking, stumbles across some dancing witches on his way home.

Burns and his family left Ellisland and moved to Dumfreys in 1793. My love is Like a Red Red Rose was written soon after.

By 1796 Bums had become dangerously ill and on the 21st of July he died, aged just 37 years old. Scotland had lost one of its best loved poets and a national hero.

Bums dreamt of immortality and wanted to be the poet of Scotland. His dream came true and today his work is loved by millions all over the world.

(from BBC English, abridged)