Robert Burns was born 250 years ago

Subject: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: goatfell
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:25 PM

Robert Burns was born on the 25th Jan 250 years ago, and this year is what is known as the homecoming.

so what Burns supper/dinner/concert are going to?

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:56 PM

it is therefore 25 years ago since I died.

Worksop Folk Club, trying to sing "My love is like a red red rose"

Mind you, I died a lot with the guitar in those days... still dying for that matter....

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Megan L
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:59 PM

nope why would anyone want to watch a bunch of ponces who wouldnt have given the man the time of day making a drunken hash of his beautiful work

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: goatfell
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 03:23 PM

how true, I think some of his work all right, but there folk groups who ovde you with his stuff

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Ythanside
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:02 PM

The homecoming?

When did he leave, and where did he go?

I'd really appreciate it if you could you clarify this, please?



BTW I have been a Burns admirer for all of my life.

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Ythanside
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:09 PM

And when he was my age he'd been dead 25 years.







Sorry, I'll get me haggis and leave quietly.

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:13 PM

When I was teaching, the school where I was teaching had a Burns night every year which we always went to; it was a great night. Now we don't really do anything.

My father was Scottish and a Robert Burns fan. He used to tell us some tales about Robert Burns. I was never quite sure where he'd got these stories from - or even if he'd made them up :-) . When he died we were trying to find a short verse to use at his funeral. I couldn't believe it when I found this verse because it was perfect, it could have been written for my father.


EPITAPH ON MY EVER HONOURED FATHER

O ye whose cheek the tear of pity stains,
Draw near with pious rev'rence, and attend!
Here lie the loving husband's dear remains,
The tender father, and the gen'rous friend.

The pitying heart that felt for human woe,
The dauntless heart that fear'd no human pride,
The friend of man – to vice alone a foe;
For 'ev'n his failings lean'd to virtue's side'.

Robert Burns

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: GUEST,julia
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:09 PM

We(Castlebay) have put together a program that celebrates Burns "The Man the Myth & The Music" which we have been presenting at libraries & schools.We put him and his work in the context of his time and try to give a balanced portrait of him- an amazing and complex man. A great biography, if a bit dense is "Robert Burns- a life" by Ian McIntyre. That plus a complete collection of his works and the Burns Encyclopedia by Maurice Lindsay will satiate the curious.

Our upcoming Schedule includes
January 24 12 noon The Maine St Andrews Society at the Carriage House in Lewiston, ME
Jan 25 6:30 pm Community House South Hamilton, MA
Jan 27 8:00pm Blue, 650 Congress St Portland Maine
January 29 (Julia solo)First Parish Church Congress St Portland Maine
Sat Feb 21 tba Scottish Foundation of the Virginia Highlands, Roanoke VA
our website is www.castlebay.net

We are also imminently releasing a Burns CD called Rantin'Rovin'Robin

Cheers- Julia

PS Anyone have news of the feature film about Burns that was supposed to be made?

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Ythanside
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 08:16 PM

For anyone interested in the life of Robert Burns a good place to start may be the series of well researched books by James Barke, 50 years old now but still as fresh as the day they were written.

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 07:32 PM

Were there kilts, as we know them, prior to Burns' time? I have heard that, though tartans existed long before that, the modern version of the kilt did not. Any takers?

In a less serious vein, I have an old friend who says he was born about ten thousand years ago. Sang a song about it. Says he made his kilt out of bark. Chafed like the devil, he says.

As for the haggis, I met an old henna-haired lady at a St. Andrews Day event many years ago. In attendance was a first generation Yank whose father had been born in Scotland. He was sitting next to his innocent new bride. When they piped in the haggis, he refused it, with a pained look on his face. The red-haired lady poked him in the shoulder and said,in a loud and brassy voice, "Aw, C'mon, Alistair, it'll put lead in yer pencil!"

And I do enjoy his work. I will celebrate his no longer being here with all of you.

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: peregrina
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:14 AM

Very nice Burns feature on Archie Fisher's Travelling Folk (08/01) available for 7 days on iplayer here. (Songs, some of the less over-used, interview, thoughtful discussion--mainly in the second half of the programme.)

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 05:05 AM

On a QI repeat last night it said Burns wouldn't have worn a kilt at all on account of it being outlawed at the time...

I'm presently singing his Winter - A Dirge written to the tune of MacPherson's Rant.

The wintry west extends his blast,
And hail and rain does blaw;
Or the stormy north sends driving forth
The blinding sleet and snaw:
While, tumbling brown, the burn comes down,
And roars frae bank to brae;
And bird and beast in covert rest,
And pass the heartless day.

The sweeping blast, the sky o'ercast,
The joyless winter day
Let others fear, to me more dear
Than all the pride of May:
The tempest's howl, it soothes my soul,
My griefs it seems to join;
The leafless trees my fancy please,
Their fate resembles mine!

Thou Power Supreme, whose mighty scheme
These woes of mine fulfil,
Here firm I rest; they must be best,
Because they are Thy will!
Then all I want-O do Thou grant
This one request of mine!-
Since to enjoy Thou dost deny,
Assist me to resign.

Subject: RE: Robert Burns was born 250 years ago
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 07:51 AM

Highland dress was proscribed in 1747 in the aftermath of the failed Jacobite rebellion. Although the law wasn't officially repealed until 1782, it had evidently fallen into desuetude well before that. In any case, Burns died in 1796, so for most of his adult life it would have been perfectly legal for him to wear a kilt (in the form it was then known) had he wished. He was a Lowlander, though, so would have been very unlikely to have done so except, perhaps, at a fancy dress party. The kilt and so on were only re-invented as 'national' costume later on.