Robert Burns' poems and songs
Robert Burns, after the brilliant success of his poetry in his 20s,
devoted the last ten years of his tragically short life to collecting,
writing and re-writing the Scottish songs. It was his deepest love affair,
only departing from it to write `Tam O'Shanter' at the request of
Captain Grose. There are 368 songs in the Burns canon and they are
one of the wonders of the world. Arguably his songs have had a greater
effect on the Scottish character than have his poems.
The notes for these works were stolen from texts by William Michael Rossetti,
Peter Dempsey, James Mackay, James Barke, Sidney Goodsir Smith, Donald A.Low,
Alan Bold. SMM is James Johnson's `Scots Musical Museum' and SCSA is George
Thomson's `A Select Collection Of Original Scottish Airs'.
The Scots in the poems and songs has been glossed relying extensively
on the work of James Mackay. Please let me,
Douglas Clark,
know if there are problems.
Poems:
Songs: