Robert Burns (1) (1759–1796)

This is a small souvenir type book, so if you are looking for a comprehensive collection of the poems written by Scotland's national poet, this is not the one. However, it served my purpose of getting to know his works a little just to get an impression.

The collection includes twenty-four poems, originally published between 1784 and 1794. They are divided into six categories: Drink, death, love, friendship, marriage and animals. The section on animals only contains one poem, though!
I liked the love poems best, they are simple, but touching and moving because Burns expresses so much in such modest lines. The poems on marriage, in contrast, are quite misogynistic. The poems on drink were the hardest to understand because of the vocabulary and because they told stories that were hard to follow.
All in all, I got used to the Scots writing fairly quickly (it helped to read them aloud in my mind), and I am happy to have read these, but will not seek out more as this was quite enough.

The books includes several pictures as well, and I enjoyed these (they show Scottish scenes from the writer's lifetime), but I would have liked a bit more info. Only a couple of the pictures show the painters name, and there isn't any other information apart from a list of art galleries in the beginning of the book (it does not even say which picture is presented in which gallery). In addition, the book misses a list of the poems and their publication date, so I had to make my own while I read. A short biography of Robert Burns would also have been nice. I think that even in such a small book, these things should be included.… (more)

This is a nicely presented collection of Burns' issue for English teachers (of the 1920s/1930s/1940s) to use in class. The contents are separated into: A Biography, an Autobiography, Epistles in Verse, Addresses in Verse, Elegies and Dirges, Songs, and Letters. A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson is appropriate: "The Memory of Burns, - every man's, every boy's and every girl's head carries snatches of his songs and they say them by heart, and, what is strangest of all, never learned them from a book, but from mouth to mouth. They are the property and the solace of mankind."… (more)

I hear that Burn's brother claimed Burns wrote this poem while in the field, holding the plow, just after the plow destroyed the mouse nest. That's poetry in of itself.

The poet contemplates the pain of destroying the mouse nest--the mouse's pain of losing its home before the December winds and the pain of knowing he caused it. However, at least the mouse knows only the present instead of dealing with the loaded thoughts of reflecting on the past and not knowing the future.

I love poems revolving around nature, but even more so when I share the sentiments of the writer. It's a terrible thing to hurt a critter you don't have to harm. Yet, there's some bizarre majesty about dealing with such realities. Farmers know these realities--as relevant to the environment--better than most.

Reading the original Scottish English is a reward as well. I almost read the poem in a squeaking, mouse-ish voice because that's what the words seemed to encourage.… (more)