1、1,Robert Burns(1759-1796),Zhengboren,2,INTRODUCTION,Robert Burns, Scottishpoet and writer of traditional Scottish folk songs, whose works are known and loved wherever the English language is read.,3,Legacy,The 19th-century scholar and educationalist J. S. Blackie summed up Burnss importance to Scotl

2、and and the Scots with the words: When Scotland forgets Burns, then history will forget Scotland. Today, Burns is unique in the affection and fascination that his memory inspires. The fruits of his legacy can be seen not only in Scotland but around the world - on product packaging, in advertising an

3、d on a wealth of merchandise, as well as through continued scholarship and academic study.,Auld Lang Syne,4,Robert Burns is the best known of the poets who have written in Scots. His poem Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay. His memory is celebrated by Burns clubs across the world; his birthday

4、 is an unofficial National Day for Scots and those with Scottish ancestry, celebrated with Burns suppers. Robert Burns was born into a farming family at Alloway in Ayrshire in 1759. He died in Dumfries at the early age of 37. Yet in that short time he had taken the Scottish literary world by storm,

5、and had secured a place for himself in history and in legend.,5,Alloway,Birthplace of Robert Burns,6,EARLY LIFE“A very poor mans son”,Burnswasbornon January 25, 1759. He was the eldest of seven children born to William Burness, a struggling tenant farmer, and his wife, Agnes Brown. Although poverty

6、limited his formal education, Burns read widely in English literature and the Bible and learned to read French. He was encouraged in his self-education by his father, and his mother acquainted him with Scottish folk songs, legends, and proverbs.,7,Agnes Brown, Burns mother,By permission of the Natio

7、nal Galleries of Scotland,8,Arduous farm work and undernourishment in his youth permanently injured his health, leading to the rheumatic heart disease from which he eventually died. He went in 1781 to Irvine to learn flax dressing, but when the shop burned down, he returned home penniless. He had, m

8、eanwhile, composed his first poems. The poets father died in 1784, leaving him as head of the family. He and his brother Gilbert rented a farm, but the venture proved a failure.,9,FIRST VERNACULAR POEMS,In1784Burnsreadthe works of the Edinburgh poet Robert Fergusson. Under his influence and that of

9、Scottish folk tradition and older Scottish poetry, he became aware of the literary possibilities of the Scottish regional dialects. During the next two years he produced most of his best-known poems, including “The Cotters Saturday Night,” “Halloween,” “To a Daisy,” and “To a Mouse.” In addition, he

10、 wrote “The Jolly Beggars,” a cantata chiefly in standard English, which is considered one of his masterpieces. Several of his early poems, notably “Holy Willies Prayer,” satirized local ecclesiastical squabbles and attacked Calvinist theology, bringing him into conflict with the church.,10,SOCIAL N

11、OTORIETY“A strong appetite for sociability”,Burnsfurtherangered church authorities by having several indiscreet love affairs. In 1785 he fell in love with Jean Armour, the daughter of a building contractor. Jean soon became pregnant, and although Burns offered to make her his wife, her father forbad

12、e their marriage. Thereupon (1786) he prepared to immigrate to the West Indies. Before departing he arranged to issue by subscription a collection of his poetry. Published on July 31 in an edition of 600 copies, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was an immediate success.,11,Jean Armour whom Bur

13、ns married in spring 1788.,12,Edinburgh “Now,God in heaven bless Reekies town”,In September Burns abandoned the West Indies plan; the same month Jean became the mother of twins. He moved in the fall of 1786 to Edinburgh, where he was lionized by fashionable society. Charmed by Burns, the literati mi

14、stakenly believed him to be an untutored bard, a “Heavens-taught Plowman.” He resented their condescension, and his bristling independence, blunt manner of speech, and occasional social awkwardness alienated admirers.,13,WhileBurnswasinEdinburgh, he successfully published a second, 3000-copy edition

15、 of Poems (1787), which earned him a considerable sum. From the proceeds he was able to tour (1787) the English border region and the Highlands and finance another winter in Edinburgh. In the meantime he had resumed his relationship with Jean Armour. The next spring she bore him another set of twins

16、, both of whom died, and in April Burns and Armour were married.,14,Ae fond kiss. This manuscript is in the Watson Autograph Collection.,15,LATER SONGS AND BALLADS,Burnsslaterliterary output consisted almost entirely of songs, both original compositions and adaptations of traditional Scottish ballad

17、s and folk songs. He contributed some 200 songs to Scots Musical Museum (6 volumes, 1783-1803), a project initiated by the engraver and music publisher James Johnson. Beginning in 1792 Burns wrote about 100 songs and some humorous verse for Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs, compiled by Ge

18、orge Thomson. Among his songs in this collection are such favorites as “Auld Lang Syne,”Comin Thro the Rye,”Scots Wha Hae,”A Red, Red Rose,”The Banks o Doon,” and “John Anderson, My Jo.”,16,Travels some shunned or reviled him. After Franco-British relations began to deteriorate, he curbed his radica

19、l sympathies, and in 1794, for patriotic reasons, he joined the Dumfriesshire Volunteers.,18,Final Years “A poor, damnd, rascally gager”,Burns spent the final years of his life in Dumfriesshire. From 1788 he attempted to farm at Ellisland, but the ground was so exhausted that this ultimately proved

20、fruitless. In September 1789 he began work for the Excise at Dumfries. Though he performed these duties diligently and compassionately, charges of political disloyalty were raised against him. At the same time failing health, which he sought to remedy by sea-bathing, overshadowed his literary and mu

21、sical output. Years of hard physical labour working on a series of unproductive farms aggravated his long-standing heart condition. This lead to his premature death at the age of 37 on 21 July 1796. On the day of his funeral, his wife gave birth to their youngest son, Maxwell.,Burnss house in Dumfries.,Ellisland.(By courtesy of the National Museum of Scotland),19,Burns funeral procession depicted by W. E. Lockhart.,20,Amemorialeditionof Burns poems was published for the benefit of his wife and children. Its editor, the physician James Currie, a man