He made conscious choices about what language to write in (Scots, Scots dialect mixed into English, or English) based on his intended audience and the particular subject matter. Why am I giving you so much biography? Because many folks assume (wrongly) that Burns wrote the way he did because he "didn't know any better." Nae, lasses and laddies, tha's not it. Burns lived in revolutionary times (the French revolution was a key event during his lifetime), and was a highly patriotic Scotsman. Burns learned English as well as the local dialect, and later learned Latin and French as well. He was raised in poverty, but his father made sure that young "Rabbie" and his siblings learned to read, write, and do math. It's written in a form of song meter that alternates lines of four stressed syllables with lines containing only three stressed syllables.īurns was from Scotland. It's written in four stanzas, rhymed XAXA XBXB CDCD EFEF. Today's poem was written as a song, and set to music by Pietro Urbani. First is the use of Scots dialect in the written word. Thinking of songs put me in mind of a song by Robert Burns:īurns is noteworthy for two things, if you ask me. KellyrfinemanYesterday's poem choice was a song by Ben Jonson.
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