Robert Burns (1759-1796 / Ayrshire / Scotland)

My feet tapped the floor as I read this poem; its rhythm moving me to keep time.

WTF was he talkin about?

For God's sake, man, forego that drivel about Burns as a 'communist ideal, ' loved and admired in the Soviet Union (NOT Russia!) . Robert Burns was a democrat (with a lower-case d) who would have fled from the collective farms that Marx, Lenin and Stalin supported and celebrated. By and large, he was a poet who feasted on wine, women and song, leaving the politics of the day to others. He contemplated moving to Jamaica, not for a higher social class or the profit to be made on selling slaves, but because he was damn near flat broke! The sale of his poems made him some money and garnered some attention from 'birkies called lord(s) ' that he realized was mere vainglory! His position in the excise (a tax collector!) was of little consequence. Burns wrote poems that demonstrated his love of life. Please tell us the names of his contemporaries who inveighed against slavery in late 18th century England/Scotland!

Was the Russian Revolution that enslaved millions the event Burns alludes to in the final lines -

The poetry of Robert Burns is more complicated than the simple surface appearance we are reading. Yes Burns wrote in both Scottish and English, but this is not the reason, that this write is wonderfully problematic. To begin with it is a Scots song titled “Is there for honest poverty”. However it is famous and more commonly known as a poem called “A Man’s a man for a’ that”. This explains the constant repetition of each stanza, it was meant to be sung and easily remembered. The style is like a Scottish folk song and is concerned with injured class pride. We can dress this up with lofty terms such as liberty, equality, brotherhood, liberalism, socialism and egalitarian ideals; which explains why the Russians loved Burns and even erected statues to him. After all he was the ploughman poet, a communist ideal.
Burns supported the American and French revolutions, he was a political poet, yet as a government employee, he could not express republican sympathies openly; least he lose his job and possibly his life. Therefore some language is coded and it would be appropriate for a Scots expert to comment on this. Interesting to note he did not write against slavery as other contemporary poets did, and considered moving to Jamaica in hopes of obtaining a higher social class, upon the profits of slavery, according to “Dr Gerard Carruthers, a lecturer in Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow.” Politics aside, I love the simple poetic poems of Robert Burns.

Burns appears to be touching on values of a man. Saying at the bottom line, HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY. or YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN. Though leaving out morale values of GOD, cuts his poem a bit short.

Burns wrote in Scots' language, dialect and in English but to suggest it confuses the message of the poem, well I respectfully disagree! Shakespeare wrote in Elizabethan dialect, some of the language he used is unfamiliar to my ears but when reading the works of a genius it is worth persevering! I love this poem and hear it as a song. It was sung at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and it was a truely moving experience, many people had tears running down their faces. The Scotland Burns lived in was full of inequality and dominated by religious doctrine. He held up these to satire but never lost his humanity.

A colloquial English confuses the message of the poem! But stanza-wise it looks to be a poem of some stuff!

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