He was also pretty big on preserving traditional Scottish songs and folktales, many of which he had nothing to do with writing. This strange phenomenon-a farmer who was also a genius-earned Burns one of his most famous nicknames, 'the heaven-taught ploughman.'īut Burns wasn't all about himself and his verse.

People were amazed that somebody like Burns, who certainly did not have the same education as a wealthy citizen of London or Edinburgh, could produce the beautiful, humorous, witty, and intelligent poetry found in his first published volume, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect(1786). How cool is that?īurns was also popular, even idealized, because he was a farmer-a laborer-with mad poetry skills. Burns was one of the first writers to put this primarily oral or spoken language into writing, which celebrated the Scottish national identity in a very real way. Much of his poetry makes use of Scottish folklore and legend, and much of it is written in Scots English, the form of English spoken in Scotland at the time. For one, the 18th century was an important time for Scotland Edinburgh was rapidly developing as a cultural center in Europe, and Burns tapped into that new sense of cultural identity. So why all the love for an old dead guy? Well, there are actually a ton of reasons. Rumor has it that he is so popular there that one can buy a book of Burns's poems in a gas station (we'd like somebody to confirm this for us). In fact, folks there even call him 'The Bard' (among a ton of other nicknames), which, we're betting, some Englishmen take issue with. To make a long story short, this guy is, without question, the native bard of Scotland. But as luck would have it, he only became more popular after his death. Did you notice those dates? Apparently Burns died pretty young-at 37, to be exact. In his native Scotland, he's much beloved, and he was a total star during his lifetime, which spanned the years from 1759 to 1796. As in, folks loved him when he lived, and still love him today, some two hundred odd years later. Shmoopers, Robert Burns was (and is) kind of a big deal.

My luve is like a red red rose