Robert Burns - who was he?

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Robert Burns:
Who was he?

Short biography:
Early life
Farm Life
Later life

Background to the man:
His poetry
His women
His politics
His Freemasonry

His celebration:
Burns Night
Celebration running order
Auld lang syne

References
Burns home page

Who was Robert Burns?

Robert Burns was the son of a poor Scottish farmer who became one of the world’s greatest poets. He spent time as a farmer himself, he had quite a few children by a rather large number of women one of whom was his wife. He was passionate in his life both with women and with his beliefs.

Robert Burns was a poetic genius who loved the land he was born into (though he threatened to leave it forever – three times — but never did). He was a man who had empathy with nature, and with his fellow man.

He was a man who held strong, even radical, political views and yet become an Exciseman for the government.

Robert Burns was skilled in writing poems in understandable English yet chose to write most of his work in Scots dialect which makes his work impenetrable without careful study.

He was a good man, and in some ways a flawed man. Yet his passion cannot be denied: his passion for his home, his passion for nature and, of course, his passion for the women that he knew.