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Traditional Burns Nights are celebrated in many
Orange Halls at this time of year, remembering the life of
Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796). He is the
best known of the poets who have written in Lowland Scots.
Burns also collected folk songs from across
Scotland, often times revising or adapting them.
His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is
often sung at Hogmanay. Other poems and songs of Burns that
remain well known today across the world include A Red,
Red Rose, To a Louise, and To a Mouse.
He was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland,
the son of William Burnes or Burns, a small farmer, and a
man of considerable force of character and self-culture. His
youth was passed in poverty, hardship, and a degree of severe
manual labour which left its traces in a premature stoop and
weakened constitution.
He had little regular schooling, and got much
of what education he had from his father, who taught his children
reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history, and
also wrote for them "A Manual of Christian Belief".
With all his ability and character, however, the elder Burns
was consistently unfortunate, and migrated with his large
family from farm to farm without ever being able to improve
his circumstances.
In 1781 Robert went to Irvine to become a flax-dresser,
but, as the result of a New Year carousal of the workmen,
including himself, the shop took fire and was burned to the
ground.
This venture accordingly came to an end. In
1783 he started composing poetry in a traditional style using
the Ayrshire dialect of Lowland Scots.
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