by Jamie Rich

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank each of you for venturing out this cold, dark, windy and wintry night, to journey here, and warm yourselves in the light of our fellowship, and of our celebration of the National Poet of Scotland, Robbie Burns.

 

I have liberally borrowed, or perhaps (more correctly) plagiarized from sources all over this globe. And this, I think, is fitting, as Robert Burns has inspired men and women from every walk of life, every strata of society, across all demographics, and in each continent that they live.

 

The very first Robert Burns night was held just a few years after his death, hosted by his local friends. Tonight, two and a half centuries after his birth, dinners are being held, in his honor, all over this planet!

 

So even though our dear bonnie Robbie has gone, his indominatable spirit very much lives on. It lives on in each and every one of us. Every time we see a fair lass and smile, or get angry at the hypocrisy of the powerful thwarting justice, or (to mix my metaphors here), expose the charlatans for wearing the Emperor’s New Clothes, then certainly the spirit of Robbie Burns  is winking at us, or raising a fist with us, or proclaiming justice at our side!

 

Robbie Burns did all of these things, and much, much more! First and foremost, of course, Burns was a poet. He took as his subjects, everyday life, politics, women and drink. With a faithful and often satirical eye, the Ploughman Poet provided a detailed record of life in 18th century Scotland. For an eye witness account of how his fellow rural Scots lived, look no further than Burns' The Cotter's Saturday Night or for impassioned comment on the apparent hypocrisy of certain sections of the Kirk, read Holy Willie's Prayer. In all of his poems, letters and songs, Burns immortalizes not only his own angst, but the life and times, culture and politics of the day. And when you read his commentary on 18^th century life in Scotland, you realize that life really hasn’t changed all that much, especially with regards to the important things. Things like love and lust, truth and justice, or just plain old survival by your wits!

 

There is no doubt that Robert Burns was a great poet. His musings on love still have the power to move even the most cynical of hearts. No political philosopher, has written more

powerfully, about class and politics, as our ploughman poet.

 

And the rollicking phrases and powerful images of the epic Tam O'Shanter are as exciting as any action movie of the 21st Century. You will be privileged to hear, after I am done putting you to sleep, a wonderful rousing rendition of that epic, by our own Cindy Monroe.

 

But it is not just his poetic genius that makes him one of the most important cultural figures Scotland has ever produced. It is the essence of the man that is celebrated every year the world over, from South Africa to Russia, from New York to Melbourne, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and here in Traverse City, Michigan.

 

He was a proud and generous man, who despised cant and hypocrisy. He dared to dream of a society where neither rank nor wealth mattered, and he loved his country, even while writing about the many iniquities of 18th century Scotland.

Had he been alive in the 50’s and 60’s here in America, I am certain that he would have stood elbow to elbow with Dr. Martin Luther King.

 

His message of equality is still our message today:

 

For all that and all that

It's coming yet for all that

That man to man the world over

Shall brothers be for all that.

 

Robert Burns anti slavery stance was further expressed in his poem “The Slave’s Lament”, which I invite you to look up and read.

Burns' poems about caste circumstances in Scotland are much read.  However, he also wrote of America's struggle for independence.  He wrote to a friend in June 1794 that: "I am going to trouble your critical patience with the first sketch of a stanza I have been framing as I paced along the road.  The subject is Liberty.  You know, my time-honored friend, how dear the theme is to me.  I design it as an irregular ode for General Washington's birthday."

Of himself, Robert Burns wrote: "The first two books I ever read in private, and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read again, were The Life of Hannibal and the History of Sir William Wallace.  Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn that I used to strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bag-pipe, and wish myself tall enough that I might be a soldier; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice in my veins which will boil along there till the floodgates of life shut in eternal rest."

Burns also disliked superstition as a means by which people enslave themselves.  However, he drew upon the rich lore of Scotland and its legends and fairy tales to produce symbolism in his poetry.

Burns once wrote in a letter that "In my infant and boyish days ...  I owed much to an old maid of my mother's, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition ...  [who had] ...  I suppose, the largest collection in the country of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, death-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, enchanted towers, giants, dragons, and other trumpery.  This cultivated the latent seeds of [my] poesy."

Burns had despairing moods during which he was accustomed to feign the strongest admiration for Milton's arch-enemy and his dauntless superiority to his desperate circumstances.  In his satire of popularly held traditions about Satan, Burns draws upon the tales he heard from his mother's maid when he writes in his Address to The Devil.

Robbie Burns loved to learn, and from an early age. Burns' parents were dedicated to learning as the means for themselves and their children to improve themselves both spiritually and materially.  According to a Burns biographer , his father, William, "in times of storm, ...  would seek out and stay with his daughter, where she was herding in the fields, because he knew that she was afraid of lightning; or in fair weather, to teach her the names of the plants and flowers.  He wrote a little theological treatise for his children's guidance too, and was ...  an exemplary father ...  and husband.  Four neighbors shared William Burness's (Burns later changed the spelling and pronunciation of his name) enthusiasm for the education of their own children as well.  Robert's mother read to the children daily.  His father, and four neighbors pooled their money to hire a tutor for their children.  The tutor, a lad of eighteen, stayed and tutored the children for a few years.  A Burns biographer once wrote that it "was parish gossip that, if you called on William Burness at meal-time, you found the whole family with a book in one hand and a horn spoon in the other."

Burns inherited his parents love of learning; a yearning that helped him to keep an open mind about himself, his Maker, acquaintances, and his surroundings.

It was actually in his capacity as an avid collector of traditional songs and tunes that Burns entered Edinburgh's cultural scene. Unable to find a patron to support his writing, despite the success of "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect", Burns began working for an Edinburgh music-seller, James Johnson, who had embarked on a project to collect and publish the words and music of every Scottish folk-song. Although the collection was produced by Johnson, Burns was its virtual editor and principal contributor, writing over 150 songs, including For a' that an' a ' that, Ae fond kiss and Auld Lang Syne. The work, entitled "The Scots Musical Museum", eventually ran to six volumes of 100 songs each. A prolific writer, Burns also contributed 114 songs to "A Select Collection Of Original Scottish Airs", a collection of 'classical' arrangements of Scottish folk-songs on which he collaborated with musical enthusiast George Thomson.

 

And so, in closing, I would propose that the reason that our Robbie Burns is so much revered the world over, even two and a half centuries after his birth, is that he was honest enough to show the many contradictions in his own life. And thus brave enough to ask us to look at ours.

At times he was a LOVER and at others he was a LECHER.

At times he was a ROMANTIC and at others he was a REALIST. He was a NATIONALIST and at times he was an INTERNATIONALIST.
He was at times a RADICAL and at others a REACTIONARY.

He was truly a ploughman poet for all times.

Ladies and gentlemen, Burns himself would probably toast his own memory in the same light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek way that he wrote a thanksgiving to our Maker for a fine meal.  The following verse is a fitting conclusion to the immortal memory if we think of it, not as a grace after meals, but as thanking our Maker for having blessed Scotland with its National Poet:

"O Lord, we do humbly thank
For that we little merit:
Now Jean may take the flesh away,
And Will bring in the spirit."

I propose a toast to Robert Burns: lover of people, lover of freedom and liberty, lover of truth, lover of learning, a lowland farmer, a Highlander at heart, a Scot.  A toast!

To the immortal memory of Robbie Burns!!