Robert Burns
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In Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era, Carol McGuirk (xiii) tries to present an argument for Robert Burns as a great poet with a more profound talent than rendered by most of the sentimental era critics who found Burns limited in dialect and not “serious” enough to be taken too seriously as a great poet “critics tend to assume that Burns is ‘hardly worth the while’ of critical study. His poetry is too simple an unambiguous to need close textural analysis and too linked to a separate Scottish tradition to justify inclusion in general discussions of late eighteenth-century poetry.” However, as we shall see, despite Burns’ oft pointed out limitations, he deserves credit as a major poet because his work embodies the classic standard of universality.The author details how to many, Burns’ work and persona were built on the narrow sympathies of a drunkard and reprobate (he was critical of Calvinist theology and fathered children to a woman before she was his wife). However, most of these individuals have missed the fact that despite Burns’ preoccupations with Scottish concerns, his poetry and songs have please many and pleased long because of the universal qualities found within them. In Burns’ work there is emotional transcendence, and the creation of a world that while distinctly Scottish is also one that is broadly human and accessible to all readers. It is these traits which make Burns’ work universal and
. . .
re of Burns as he entered his twenties is clear enough” (Daiches 21). Many of his works written in his mid-twenties exhibit these qualities and the literary possibilities of the Scottish regional dialects, like “The Cotter’s Saturday Night”, “Hallow’en”, and “To A Mouse.” However, these works also show the universality in the poet’s work, such as the theme of extending sympathy to all living things in “To A Mouse.”
Burns was a humanitarian, libertarian and egalitarian and his works demonstrate this and a sympathy for the common man. The latter part of his career was devoted mainly to the composition of songs, influenced by his study and collection of the traditional music and songs of rural Scotland. His own life experiences dictated much of the sentiment and themes in his works which are largely thought to be autobiographical. His sentimental songs to “Highland Mary” are symbolic of his themes and style, as well as the eighteenth century preoccupation on morbidity and mortality since they are an urgent appeal to a dead girl:
O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly!
And clos’d for ay, the sparkling glance,
That dwelt on me sae kindly!
And moldering now in silent dust,
The heart that lo’ed me
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1250
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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