Dakota Beacon

Wedged between Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and Black History Month, but far in advance of St. Patrick’s Day, resides an almost-forgotten celebration of a very famous Celtic poet.Robert Burns was born January 25, 1759, in Ayrshire, Scotland. Two hundred fifty-two years later, Scotland’s immortal bard is still remembered on Burns Night around the world, particularly in British Commonwealth countries.

Education for the future poet laureate began at age six and continued sporadically over the next ten years. Basic resources included a spelling book, an English grammar, the Bible and Mason’s collection of prose and verse.

Burns rise to fame began at age 27 when he published his first slim book of poems titled “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect” (now known as “The Kilmarnock Edition”). A few of the 612 copies published reached the Socialites of Edinburgh where it was received with curiosity and wonder. The literati were astounded that an apparently ignorant farmer could produce such quality. It was clear Burns was of considerable intellect.

Burns fell in love at the tender age of fourteen and he never fell out. Two years later he experienced a second “breech of innocence.” Both of these interludes were etched in his memory and later graced his verse. For Burns, every subject was fair game for his pen and he liberally laced his poetry with themes of love, nature and ribald humor.

Robert Burns also had a life-long love affair -- with words -- both spoken and written. Everyone has sung “Auld Lang Syne.” Who but a farmer could write an ode “To A Mouse” with feeling? His love of nature produced “Sweet Afton” and “The Banks o’Doon.” His many liaisons resulted in some of the finest love lyrics including “Jean” and “Highland Mary.”

Burns’s poems take on fresh meaning when you visit Burns Country in Scotland. There is no substitute for trodding the ground on which Burns was inspired by his muse. I recall vividly my impressions of Alloway Kirk (Alloway Church, now in ruins) and the Auld Brig o’Doon (old bridge over the river Doon) when I read “Tam o’Shanter” around Halloween. This Burns classic tells of a ne’er do well named Tam o’Shanter who spent too much time one night over drink and encountered witches around Alloway Kirk on his midnight ride home across Auld Brig o’Doon.

In 1780 Burns founded the Bachelor’s Club, a men-only debating club and fellowship of male camaraderie. The rules were simple and to the point. The last rule was that each gentleman was to have “a frank, open, and honest heart; above anything dirty or mean; and must be a professed lover of one or more of the female sex.”

This rule revealed an early indication of his polygamous attitude toward women. Although Burns has long been known as Scotland’s immortal bard, his libertine lifestyle earned him the just reputation among some of our Scots friends as Scotland’s “immoral bard.”

Although his Bachelor’s Club was certainly not the pattern for the Burns Night dinners of today, nevertheless, it is only fitting that the memory of Burns be celebrated at a well-set table. Burns’s admirers gather together in homes or public places, preferably around a glowing fire, to drink Scotch, eat short bread and recite Burns’s poetry paying tribute to their champion.

The highlight of the Burns Night supper is the serving of the haggis, a sausage-like sheep’s stomach stuffed with spiced organ meats and oatmeal. The reading of Burns’s poem “To A Haggis” would accompany the entry of the haggis as a tribute to the “chief of the puddin’ race.” A special touch would include the playing of the bagpipes.

Locally, and until recently, the Scots community in Cass County, North Dakota, celebrated a vibrant Burns Night. However, as the older generation passed away and the younger generation moved away, the last of the Burns Night celebrations has gone away.

Hard labor and poor diet plagued Burns throughout most of his life. Pride and independence kept him from seeking assistance. At the age of thirty-seven his resistance crumbled and his health failed. Burns’s medical friends could not know he was suffering from a leaky heart valve. He died July 21, 1796, in the “dignity of honest poverty.” As many as 10,000 admirers followed his hearse to St. Michael’s Churchyard, Dumfries, Scotland.

Robert Burns gained more fame in death than he ever knew in life. Many of his poems and songs remain international favorites to this day despite his hard-to-decipher lowland Scots dialect.

In 2009 Scotland’s TV conducted a public vote to decide who should be named the most famous Scot. Robert Burns won hands down beating William Wallace by a fraction.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).