My First Introduction To Burns Poem by Francis Duggan

The gifted one from Ayrshire more than a man of rhyme
His poems and odes and verses have withstood the test of time
All around this World we live in from north to southern shore
The songs of Robert Burns will be sung forever more.

The memories come to me of when I was a boy
As we sat around an Irish travellers camp fire on an evening in July
The gray haired nomadic singer 'Afton Waters' did sing
In the calm gathering twilight the minstrel's voice did ring.

I asked one of the travellers who wrote this marvellous song
And he replied those beautiful words to all of mankind now belong
From the pen of Robert Burns he was one who lived it hard
He was the pride of Scotland and his Country's finest bard.

My first introduction to Burns from one of the travelling clan
A fiddler and a singer and a born to wander man
At cross roads and at horse fairs and around the countryside
The songs of the Highland Ploughboy he broadcast far and wide.

The great and gifted bard from Ayrshire did not live to be old
And the story of his amazing rise to fame so often has been told
And the music in his verses is there for all to see
And there may have been some great bards but few as great as he.

My first introduction to Burns came close to fifty years ago
Around a travellers camp fire when I was eight or so
the sweetness in the old singers voice a memory to enjoy
When he sang 'Afton Waters' on that evening in July.