Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns, also known as Rabbie Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire and various other names and epithets, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth25 January 1759
gold farmers merchants
For gold the merchant ploughs the main, The farmer ploughs the manor.
evil frailty
Great for good, or great for evil.
thanksgiving want sae
Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.
should god-knows knows
God knows, I'm no the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be.
song scottish modern
[Scottish songs] are, I own, frequently wild, & unreduceable to the more modern rules; but on that very eccentricity, perhaps, depends a great part of their effect.
change men best-laid-plans
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.
ocean fate simple
Such is the fate of simple Bard, On life's rough ocean luckless starr'd
prayer country-love scotland
O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent
world wide
The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend.
sex night opposites
I look on the opposite sex with something like the admiration with which I regard the starry sky on a frosty December night. I admire the beauty of the Creator's workmanship, I am charmed with the wild but graceful eccentricity of the motions, and then I wish both of them goodnight.
atheist would-be twenties
God knows, I'm not the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be, But twenty times I rather would be An atheist clean, Than under gospel colours hid be Just for a screen.
brother son affliction
Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!
kissing ties snow
Humid seal of soft affections, Tend'rest pledge of future bliss, Dearest tie of young connections, Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.
definitions mankind
Mankind is a science that defies definitions.