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Robert Burns. Biography. Poetry.

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Love Poems by Robert Burns

Biography of Robert Burns
BURNS, ROBERT (Burns, Robert) (1759–1796), Scottish poet. Created
original poetry, in which he glorified work, people and freedom, selfless
and selfless love and friendship. Satirical anti-church poems "Two
shepherd" (1784), "The Prayer of Saint Willie" (1785), the collection "Poems,
written chiefly in the Scottish dialect" (1786), patriotic
hymn "Bruce to the Scots", cantata "Jolly Beggars", civil and love
lyrics (poems “Tree of Liberty”, “John Barleycorn”, etc.),
drinking songs. Collected and prepared for publication the works of Scottish
poetic and musical folklore, with which his poetry is closely connected.
Born on January 25, 1759 in Alloway (County Ayr) in the family of a gardener and
tenant farmer William Burns and his wife Agnes. First of seven
children. He received an excellent education thanks to his father. I've been reading since childhood
the Bible, English Augustian poets (Pope, Edison, Swift and Steele) and
Shakespeare. He began writing poetry while he was in school and working on a farm.
Robert and his brother Gilbert attended school for two years. In 1765 his father took
rented the Mount Oliphant farm, and Robert worked as an adult from the age of 12
worker, undernourished and overstrained his heart. He read everything he could get his hands on
at hand - from penny brochures to Shakespeare and Milton. At school he heard
only English speech, but from the mother and the old servants and from the same brochures
became familiar with the language of Scottish ballads, songs and fairy tales.
In 1777, his father moved to Lochley Farm near Tarbolton, and for Robert
a new life has begun. In Tarbolton he found company to his liking and soon
became its leader. In 1780 Burns and his friends organized a cheerful "Club
bachelors,” and in 1781 he joined the Masonic lodge. 13 February 1784 father
died, and with the money left after him, Robert and Gilbert moved the family to
Mossgiel farm near Mochlin. Even earlier, in 1783, Robert began recording
a notebook of his youthful poems and rather stilted prose. Contact with
Betty Peyton's maid led to the birth of his daughter on May 22, 1785.
Local clerics took advantage of the opportunity and imposed penance on Burns for
fornication, but this did not stop the laity from laughing when reading what went on in
lists of the Holy Fair and the Prayer of Saint Willie.
At the beginning of 1784, Burns discovered the poetry of R. Fergusson and realized that
The Scots language is by no means a barbaric and dying dialect and is capable of
convey any poetic shade - from salty satire to lyrical
delight. He developed the traditions of Fergusson, especially in the genre of aphoristic
epigrams. By 1785 Burns had already gained some fame as the author of colorful
friendly messages, dramatic monologues and satires.
In 1785 Burns fell in love with Jean Armor (1765–1854), daughter of Mochlinsky
contractor J. Armor. Burns gave her a written “undertaking” - a document
according to Scottish law, certifying an actual, albeit illegal, marriage.
However, Burns' reputation was so bad that Armor broke up
"obligation" in April 1786 and refused to take the poet as his son-in-law. Even before that
Humiliation Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica. It is not true that he published his
poems to help out with money for travel - a thought about this publication
came to him later. Poems Printed in Kilmarnock
mainly in the Scottish dialect (Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish
Dialect) went on sale on August 1, 1786. Half of the circulation of 600
copies sold out by subscription, the rest were sold for several
weeks After this, Burns was accepted into the aristocratic literary circle
Edinburgh. Collected, processed and recorded about two hundred songs for the Scottish
musical society. He started writing songs himself. Fame hardly came to Burns
not overnight. Noble gentlemen opened the doors of their mansions to him.
Armor dropped the claim and Betty Peyton was paid off with 20 pounds. September 3
1786 Jean gives birth to twins.
The local nobility advised Burns to forget about emigration and go to
Edinburgh and announce a nationwide subscription. He arrived in the capital on 29
November and with the assistance of J. Cunningham and others concluded an agreement on December 14
with publisher W. Creech. During the winter season, Burns was in great demand in secular
society. He was patronized by the "Caledonian Hunters", members
an influential club for the elite; at a meeting of the Masonic Grand Lodge
Scotland hailed him as the “Bard of Caledonia.” Edinburgh edition
The poem (published on April 21, 1787) attracted about three thousand subscribers and
brought Burns about 500 pounds, including one hundred guineas, for which he,
Having listened to bad advice, he ceded the copyright to Krich. About half
The proceeds went to help Gilbert and his family in Mossgiel.
Before leaving Edinburgh in May, Burns met J. Johnson,
semi-literate engraver and fanatical lover of Scottish music, who
shortly before he published the first issue of the Scottish Music Museum
(“The Scots Musical Museum”). From the autumn of 1787 until the end of his life, Burns actually
was the editor of this publication: collected texts and melodies, supplemented
surviving passages in stanzas of one's own composition, lost or
replaced obscene texts with his own. He was so successful in this that without
documented evidence is often impossible to establish where folk
texts, where are Burns' texts? For the "Museum", and after 1792 for more
refined, but also less bright “Selected original Scottish melodies”
(“Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs”, 1793–1805) by J. Thomson
wrote more than three hundred texts, each with its own motive.
Burns returned triumphantly to Mochlin on July 8, 1787. Half a year of glory did not
turned his head, but changed the attitude towards him in the village. Armors
He was welcomed and he resumed his relationship with Jean. But Edinburgh
maid Peggy Cameron, who gave birth to Burns' child, sued him, and
he went again to Edinburgh.
There, on December 4, he met an educated married lady, Agnes Craig.
M "Lehuz. Three days later he dislocated his knee and, bedridden, started
with “Clarinda,” as she called herself, a love correspondence. I had a dislocation and
more significant consequences. The doctor who treated Burns was familiar with
Scottish Excise Commissioner R. Graham. Having learned about the poet’s desire to serve in
excise, he turned to Graham, who allowed Burns to go through the proper
education. The poet passed it in the spring of 1788 in Mauchlin and Tarbolton and on July 14
received a diploma. The prospect of an alternative source of income gave him
courage to sign a contract for the lease of Ellisland Farm on March 18th.
Upon learning that Jean was pregnant again, her parents kicked her out of the house. Burns
returned to Mochlin on February 23, 1788 and, apparently, immediately recognized her as his
wife, although the announcement took place only in May, and the church court approved them
marriage only on August 5th. On March 3, Jean gave birth to two girls, who soon
died. On June 11, Burns began working on the farm. By the summer of 1789 it became clear
that Ellisland would not bring any income in the near future, and in October Burns
patronage received the position of excise officer in his rural area. He's great
performed it; in July 1790 he was transferred to Dumfries. In 1791 Burns refused
renting Ellisland, moved to Dumfries and lived on the exciseman's salary.
Burns's creative work over the course of three years at Ellisland consisted of
mainly to the texts for Johnson’s “Museum”, with one serious
The exception is the story in verse by Tam O" Shanter. In 1789 Burns
met the collector of antiquities Fr. Grose, who compiled
two-volume anthology The Antiquities of Scotland.
The poet invited him to include in the anthology an engraving depicting the Alloway
church, and he agreed - on the condition that Burns would write a legend for the engraving
about witchcraft in Scotland. This is how one of the best ballads in history came about.
literature.
Meanwhile, passions flared up around the Great French Revolution,
which Burns accepted with enthusiasm. Investigations have begun regarding
loyalty of civil servants. By December 1792 Burns had accumulated
so many denunciations that Chief Exciseman William Corbett came to Dumfries to
personally conduct the inquiry. Through the efforts of Corbett and Graham, it all ended with
Burns was obliged not to talk too much. It was still intended to be promoted
service, but in 1795 he began to lose his health: rheumatism affected
a heart weakened in adolescence. Burns died on July 21, 1796.
Burns is extolled as a romantic poet - in everyday life and
literary sense of this definition. However, Burns' worldview
was based on the practical common sense of the peasants among whom he grew up. WITH
he essentially had nothing in common with romanticism. On the contrary, his work
marked the last flowering of Scottish poetry in its native language - poetry
lyrical, earthly, satirical, sometimes mischievous, the traditions of which were
founded by R. Henryson (c. 1430 – c. 1500) and W. Dunbar (c. 1460 – c.
1530), forgotten during the Reformation and revived in the 18th century. A. Ramsey and
R. Ferguson.

Poems about love (and more)

There is no peace in my soul:
I've been waiting all day for someone
Without sleep I meet the dawn,
And all because of someone.
There is no one with me
Oh, where to find someone
I can go around the whole world
To find someone.
To find someone
I can go around the whole world...

O you who keep love
Unknown forces!
May he return unharmed again
My dear someone comes to me.
But there is no one with me,
I'm sad for some reason
I swear that I would give everything
In the world for someone.
In the world for someone
I swear that I would give everything...

KISS

Wet seal of confessions,
The promise of secret negations -
Kiss, early snowdrop,
Fresh, clean, like snow.

A silent concession
Passion is a child's game,
Friendship between a dove and a dove,
The first time of happiness.

Joy in sad parting
And the question: “when again?”
Where are the words for the name
Find these feelings?

LITTLE BALLAD

Somewhere a girl lived.
What a girl she was!
And she loved a nice guy.

But they had to part
And love each other apart
Because the war has started.

Over the seas, over the hills -
Where the guns throw flames,
The warrior's heart did not waver in battle.

This heart was fluttering
Only at night at rest time,
Remembering your sweetheart!

Love is like a rose, a red rose,
Blooms in my garden.
My love is like a song
With whom I go on the journey.

Stronger than your beauty
My love is one.
She is with you until the seas
Will not dry to the bottom.

The seas will not dry up, my friend,
Granite doesn't crumble
The sand won't stop
And he, like life, runs...

Be happy my love
Goodbye and don't be sad.
I'll come back to you, even the whole world
I would have to pass!

Making my way to the gate
Field along the boundary,
Jenny is soaked to the skin
In the evening in the rye.

It's very cold girl
Gives the girl a shiver:
I soaked all my skirts,
Walking through the rye.

If someone called someone
Through the thick rye
And someone hugged someone,
What will you take from him?

And why do we care?
If at the boundary
Someone kissed someone
In the evening in the rye!..

But keep your eyes peeled as you make your way towards me.
Find a loophole in the garden wall,
Find three steps in the garden under the moon.
Go, but it’s as if you’re not coming to me,
Walk as if you are not coming to me at all.

And if we meet in church, look
Don't talk to my friend, don't talk to me,
Steal a gentle glance to me,
And more - look! - don't look at me,
And more - look! - don't look at me!

Tell others, keeping our secret,
That you don't care at all about me.
But even jokingly, beware like fire,
So that someone doesn't take you away from me,
And he really didn’t take you away from me!

Whistle - I won't keep you waiting
Just whistle - I won't keep you waiting.
Let my father and mother fight,
Whistle - I won't keep you waiting!

In the fields, under the snow and rain,
My dear friend,
My poor friend
I would cover you with a cloak
From winter blizzards,
From winter blizzards.

And if the torment is destined
It's your destiny
It's your destiny
I'm ready to grieve your sorrow to the bottom
Share with you
Share with you.

Let me go down into the dark valley,
Where is the night all around?
Where there is darkness all around, -
In the darkness I would find the sun
Together with you,
Together with you.

And if they gave me an inheritance
The entire globe
The entire globe
With what happiness would I own
You alone
You alone.

BAREBAEAL GIRL

About this barefoot girl
I couldn't forget.
It seemed like the pavement stones
They tear at the skin of your tender feet.

I'd like to wear legs like these
In colored morocco or satin.
Such a girl should sit
In a carriage that overtook us!

The stream of her curls runs
Linen rings on the chest.
And the shine of eyes in the darkness of nights
It would show the swimmers the way.

She will outshine all beauties,
Although the world does not know her.
She is dignified and modest.
There is no sweeter person in the world.

MY HAPPINESS

I'm happy with little, but I'm happy with more.
And if adversity disturbs my harmony,
For a mug, to the song I kick them away -
Let them fly to hell.

Sometimes I clench my teeth in frustration,
But life is a battle, and you, brother, are a hero.
My pennies are irredeemable - my disposition is careless,
And all the kings cannot deprive me of my rights.

Troubles oppress me all year long.
But an evening with friends - and everything will heal.
When we managed to reach our goal,
Why should we remember about potholes along the way!

Should I tinker with the nag - my destiny?
Whether to me or from me, but she would go quickly.
Care or joy will look into my home,
- Come in! - I’ll say, “maybe we’ll live!”

BEHIND THE FIELD OF RYE

Behind the rye field, bushes grew.
And the buds of unopened roses
They bowed down, wet with tears,
Dewy early morning.

But twice the morning haze
She came down and the rose blossomed.
And so the dew was light
On it on a balmy morning.

And linnet at dawn
Sat in a leafy tent
And everything was like silver,
In the dew of a cold morning.

Happy time will come
And the kids will chirp
In the shade of a green tent
Hot summer morning.

My friend, your turn will come
Pay for a lot of worries
To those who protect your peace
Early spring morning.

You, unopened flower,
Spread every petal
And those whose evening is not far away,
Warm you up on a summer morning!

MY HEART IS IN THE MOUNTAINS

I chase a deer, scare a goat.
My heart is in the mountains, and I myself am below.

Farewell, my homeland! North, goodbye, -
The Fatherland of glory and valor.
We are driven by fate across the world,
I will forever remain your son!

Farewell, peaks under the roof of snow,
Farewell, valleys and slopes of meadows,
Farewell, fallen into the abyss of the forest,
Farewell, streams of forest voices.

My heart is in the mountains... To this day I am there.
I follow the trail of a deer along the rocks.
I chase a deer, scare a goat.
My heart is in the mountains, and I myself am below!

And these are the famous Scottish fold cats

Piper:)

Burns Robert (1759-1796)

Scottish poet. Born in the village of Alloway, near the city of Ayr in Scotland, into a poor peasant family. All my life I struggled with extreme poverty. He started writing poetry at the age of 15.

He combined poetic creativity with work on a farm, then with the position of an excise official (from 1789). Satirical poems. "The Two Shepherds" and "The Prayer of Holy Willie" circulated in manuscript and cemented Burns' reputation as a freethinker. His first book, Poems Written Primarily in the Scottish Dialect, immediately brought the poet wide fame.

Burns prepared Scottish songs for publication for the Edinburgh edition of The Scottish Musical Museum and A Select Collection of Original Scottish Tunes.
Burns welcomed the Great French Revolution (the poem “The Tree of Liberty”, etc.) and the rise of the revolutionary democratic movement in Scotland and England.

Based on folklore and old Scottish literature, having assimilated the advanced ideas of the Enlightenment, he created poetry that was original and modern in spirit and content.

Burns's work (“Honest Poverty”, etc.) affirms the personal dignity of a person, which the poet places above titles and wealth. Poems in praise of work, creativity, fun, freedom, selfless and selfless love and friendship coexist in his poetry with satire, humor, tenderness and sincerity with irony and sarcasm.

Burns's poems are characterized by simplicity of expression, emotionality, and internal drama, which often manifests itself in the composition (“Jolly Beggars”, etc.). Numerous of his songs are set to music and live in oral performance. Burns's poems have been translated into many languages of the world.

Burns died on 21 July 1796 in Dumfries. He was only 37 years old. According to contemporaries, the cause of Burns's early death was excessive alcohol consumption. Historians and biographers of the 20th century are inclined to believe that Burns died from the consequences of hard physical labor in his youth with congenital rheumatic carditis, which in 1796 was aggravated by diphtheria he suffered.

Brief biography of the poet, basic facts of life and work:

ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796)

The great Scottish poet Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759 in the village of Alloway (County Ayr) in the family of gardener and tenant farmer William Burness. The poet's mother's name was Agnes Brown (1732-1820), she was from Maybole. Robert had three brothers and three sisters.

The family lived poorly. Suffice it to say that Robert and his brother Gilbert took turns going to school, since their father, who was trying to ensure his children received an education, did not have the means to pay for two students at once.

Later, several farmers, including Burns’ father, chipped in to invite a teacher for their children. It was eighteen-year-old Murdoch, a capable and energetic young man. He taught Robert English literary language, grammar and French. Burns read French authors in the original and spoke French. Subsequently, he independently studied Latin. Having moved to work in the city, teacher Murdoch continued to maintain friendship with Burns and supplied him with books. The son of a poor Scottish peasant, Robert Burns became an educated and well-read man.

In 1765, the Burns leased Mount Oliphant Farm, and Robert labored here as an adult laborer, malnourished and overstrained in his heart. It was the hard work at Mount Oliphant that ultimately became the main reason for the poet’s early death.

Everyone who knew Robert during these years later recalled his great passion for reading. The boy read everything he could get his hands on - from penny pamphlets to Shakespeare and Milton. Burns wrote down his first original poem in 1774. It was “I loved a girl before...”

Provincial life is not full of any bright, stunning events. Likewise, Burns’s fate was full of inner passions, but outwardly it proceeded slowly and banally against the backdrop of minor troubles and numerous love stories.

In 1777, his father moved to Lochley Farm near Tarbolton, and a new time began for the young man. The most important step in his life was his entry into the Tarbolton Masonic Lodge of St. David on July 14, 1781, which largely determined the poet’s future fate. It was the Masons who supported him in his literary activities.

On February 13, 1784, William Burns died, and with the money he left behind, Robert and Gilbert moved the family to Mossgiel farm near Mauchlin. Here the young man entered into a relationship with the maid Betty Peyton, and on May 22, 1785, his illegitimate daughter Elizabeth (1785-1817) was born. The birth of a girl caused a stir in Puritan society. Robert was put under penance for fornication.

It's funny, but just by this time Burns had already gained some fame as the author of bright friendly messages, dramatic monologues and satires.

In the same 1785, true love came to Robert Burns - the poet fell in love with Jean Armor (1765-1854), the daughter of the wealthy Mokhlin contractor John Armor. The passion reached the point that Burns, according to unwritten Scottish laws, gave the girl a written “commitment”, which certified the actual, but not yet legal, marriage. Jean showed the document to her father, but he, being a witness to Robert’s public penance, broke the “obligation” and refused to take the poet as his son-in-law.

In the midst of a passionate affair with Jean, the poet received an offer to emigrate to Jamaica. But there was no money for the trip. It was then that friends advised Robert to publish a collection of his poems, and with the proceeds from its sale to go to America.

Burns's first book, Poems, with a circulation of 1,200 copies, was published in Kilmarnock in the summer of 1786. It was written mainly in the Scottish dialect. Half of the circulation was immediately sold by subscription, organized by the Masonic lodge among its members, friends and relatives of the Masons. The remainder of the circulation was sold out in a few weeks. And overnight, unexpected fame came to Robert Burns. The doors of the richest houses in Scotland opened before him.

On July 9, 1786, James Armor sued Burns for adultery. The court ordered the libertine to be thrown into prison until he guarantees payment of a huge sum for the damage suffered by the Armors. In the end, Burns and Jean had to serve their time in the “penance bench” of the church, where they “received public censure for the sin of adultery.”

Later she managed to pay off Betty Peyton, who still claimed Robert as the father of her daughter. The woman was paid £20 and resigned to being a single mother.

With the assistance of J. Cunningham, on December 14, 1786, he entered into an agreement with the Edinburgh publisher W. Creech. In the capital, Burns was received enthusiastically, he was constantly invited to social salons, and he was given the patronage of the Caledonian Hunters, a very influential club for the elite, whose members were also Freemasons. The leaders of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Scotland proclaimed Burns the "Bard of Caledonia".

The Edinburgh edition of the Poems was published on April 21, 1787. The publisher, printer and artist of the book were Freemasons; the book was purchased mainly by members of the lodge and people associated with them. In total, the publication collected about 3,000 subscribers and brought Burns about 500 pounds, including one hundred guineas, for which he gave up the copyright to Creech.

About half of the proceeds went to help Gilbert and his family in Mossgiel; Burns decided to use the remaining amount to rebuild his life.

Before leaving Edinburgh in May 1787, Burns met James Johnson. This semi-literate engraver was fanatically fond of Scottish music. With his own saved money, he published the collection “Scottish Music Museum”, which he decided to turn into an almanac. From the autumn of 1787 until the end of his life, Burns became the de facto editor of this publication (a total of 5 volumes were published). He not only collected texts and melodies, but, under the guise of folk art, published poems of his own composition in almanacs, even added to lost ones or rewrote obscene texts of folk works. The poet did this so talentedly that at present, in the absence of documented evidence, it is impossible to distinguish between Burns’ work and the real folk text. It is known that the poet created only about 300 such poems.

On July 8, 1787, Robert Burns returned to Mauchlin. All-Scotland fame preceded his arrival. Accordingly, the attitude towards him in the village changed. First of all, the poet was favorably received by the Armors, and relations with Jean were renewed.

However, it suddenly became known that while in Edinburgh, Robert entered into a relationship with the maid Peggy Cameron, who gave birth to a child from him and immediately sued her lover. I had to return to the capital.

While the legal battle dragged on, on December 4, 1787, Burns met an educated married lady, Agnes Craig M'Lehous. They developed a close relationship (they lasted almost all of Burns’ life), but three days after they met, the poet dislocated his knee and found himself bedridden. And then the famous love correspondence began, in which Agnes Craig chose to act under the pseudonym Clarinda.

One day, in a conversation with a doctor who used him, Burns spoke about his desire to enter the public service. The doctor knew the Scottish Excise Commissioner, R. Graham. Upon learning of the poet's desire, Graham allowed Burns to undergo training as an exciseman (tax collector).

On July 14, 1788, the poet received a proper diploma. At the same time, to increase income, he rented the Ellisland farm. On August 5, 1788, the marriage of Burns and Jean Armor, who by that time was again pregnant, was finally officially recognized. On March 3, 1789, the woman gave birth to two girls, who soon died.

During his three years at Ellisland, Burns worked mainly on texts at the Scottish Music Museum, and also wrote for the two-volume anthology The Scottish Side, which was being prepared for publication by Fr. Grose, a story in verse by Tam O'Shanter.

The farm purchased by Burns turned out to be unprofitable. Fortunately, the poet received, under the patronage, the position of excise officer in his rural area. The authorities were pleased with his diligence; in July 1790, Burns was transferred to serve in Dumfries. At the same time, he refused to rent Ellisland and began to live on one salary.

Meanwhile, in 1789, the Great French Bourgeois Revolution began. Frightened British authorities began investigating the loyalty of civil servants.

Burns openly spoke out in support of the revolution. One day, the poet, along with other customs and excise officials, participated in the disarmament of a smuggling ship. It was decided to sell the captured guns at auction. Burns bought them with all the money he had and sent them to France as a gift to the Convention, which was at war with the European coalition, including Great Britain. In other words, the great nationalist Burns, for the sake of his parochial political ambitions, sent powerful weapons to the enemy to kill his compatriots. Fortunately, the guns were intercepted by the British at sea.

By December 1792, so many denunciations had accumulated against Burns that Chief Exciseman William Corbet arrived in Dumfries to personally conduct an inquiry. We must pay tribute to the excise officials, through the efforts of Corbett and Graham, the investigation ended with Burns being ordered not to talk too much. They still intended to promote him...

But unexpectedly in 1795 the poet became seriously ill with rheumatism. When he was already lying on his deathbed, the merchant, to whom Burns owed an insignificant amount for cloth, sued the dying man. The poet did not have seven pounds to pay his debt, and he was threatened with debtor's prison. In desperation, Burns for the first and last time asked for help from George Thomson, the publisher of a collection of Scottish songs (Burns sent his poems to the collection for free). Thomson sent him the required amount, because he knew that the proud poet would not accept a larger sum.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

The names of Shakespeare, Byron or Burns in the minds of Russian people are side by side with the names of Pushkin, Lermontov, and we are not surprised that British poets spoke in our native language. This happened thanks to the work of several generations of translators, but above all thanks to the very high level of Russian poetic culture in general, which was shaped by Pushkin and Zhukovsky, Tyutchev, Blok, Pasternak and many other great creators. In the case of Robert Burns, something of a miracle also happened. It was revealed to the Russian reader by S. Marshak. And he not only discovered him, but made him seem almost like a Russian poet. The whole world knows Burns, but the poet’s compatriots, the Scots, consider our country his second homeland. “Marshak made Burns Russian, leaving him to the Scots,” wrote Alexander Tvardovsky.

The fact is that Marshak did not literally follow the rhythm, stanza, the accuracy of the meaning of each line - he found a certain translation equivalent of the very element of the Scottish poet’s creativity. Not all experts are happy with this technique, but it was in these translations that Burns immediately and forever entered into us, we believed this version - and I think it is unlikely that more accurate translations will be successful. Still, the spirit of poetry is more important than the letter.

Overnight on the way

I was overtaken by darkness in the mountains,

January wind, biting snow.

The houses are tightly closed,

And I couldn't find a place to stay for the night.

Luckily the girl is alone

She met me on the way,

And she offered me

Enter her secluded house.

I bowed low to her -

The one who saved me in a snowstorm,

He bowed to her politely

And he asked to make the bed.

She is the finest canvas

Made a modest bed

And, having treated me to wine,

She wished me a sweet sleep.

I was sorry to part with her,

And in order not to let her leave,

I asked the girl: “Is it possible?”

Should I bring another pillow?

She brought a pillow

Under my head.

And she was so sweet

That I hugged her tightly.

There was blood in her cheeks,

Two bright lights flashed.

- If you have love for me,

Leave me as a girl!

The silk of her hair was soft

And curled like hops

She was fragrant with roses,

The one who made my bed.

And her breasts were round,

It seemed like early winter

With my breath I have marked

These two small hills.

I kissed her on the mouth -

The one who made my bed,

And she was all clean

Like this mountain blizzard.

She didn't argue with me

She didn’t open her sweet eyes.

And between me and the wall

She fell asleep at a late hour.

Waking up in the first light of day,

I fell in love with my friend again.

- Oh, you ruined me! —

My love told me.

Kissing the eyelids of wet eyes

And a curl curling like hops,

I said: “Many, many times.”

You will make my bed!

Then she took the needle

And she sat down to sew a shirt for me.

January morning at the window

She sewed a shirt for me...

Days flash by, years go by,

Flowers are blooming, a blizzard is blowing,

But I will never forget

The one who made my bed.

The spirit of Burns's poetry is, first of all, the spirit of the people of Scotland at that time. The people seemed to be waiting for their poet, and he appeared in the very midst of the people. In the village of Alloway there is a clay hut under a thatched roof where Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759. This house was built with his own hands by the poet's father, William Burns, the son of a bankrupt farmer from the north of Scotland. In the new house, my father made a shelf for books, read a lot and even wrote something down in the evenings. And he wrote down, as it were, his future conversation with his son, and the whole thing was called “Instruction in Faith and Piety.”

The father cared a lot about the education of his children. When Robert turned seven, and his brother Gilbert was six years old, his father invited teacher John Murdoch to the house, who eagerly recited Milton and Shakespeare and explained difficult passages. He introduced the boys to the classics, taught them to read poetry expressively and speak English correctly.

Burns's work was greatly influenced by both classical examples in literary English and his native Scottish dialect, in which his mother sang songs, in which he was told scary tales about witches and werewolves.

The boys worked with their father on the farm - they helped plow, sow, and harvest. One summer, Robert first fell in love with a girl from a neighboring farm. “This is how love and poetry began for me,” he later recalled.

Land, peasant labor, pure love - these became the main themes in his work. And at the same time, all of Burns’ stanzas are permeated with the melody of old Scottish poetry and music.

-Who's knocking there at this late hour?

“Of course I’m Findlay!”

- Go home. Everyone is sleeping with us!

"Not all!" said Findlay.

- How dare you come to me?

“Dare!” said Findlay.

- You're probably going to make some trouble.

"Can!" - Findlay said

- Open the gate for you...

“Come on!” said Findlay.

“You won’t let me sleep until dawn!”

"I'm not giving it!" said Findlay.

The reader can find out how this dialogue ended by reading Burns's book of poems and ballads. Here, thank God, Burns has been published and is being published a lot.

So, the people heard their own music in Burns’s poems, heard their own soul and saw themselves.

Burns was not just a genius. He received, firstly, a good education, and, secondly, he did a lot of self-education. Then in the salons of Edinburgh, where Burns would come to publish his poems, they would be amazed at his culture and knowledge.

The maturation of his talent was greatly influenced by a volume of poems by Robert Fergusson, a young poet who died at the age of twenty-four. He wrote poetry in Scots. Burns was amazed at what beautiful poetry could be written in the “common dialect.” Burns began collecting old songs and ballads and drawing poetry from them. And on Fergusson’s grave he would later place a granite slab with his lines carved on it:

No urn, no solemn word,

There is not a statue in its fence,

Only the bare stone speaks sternly:

- Scotland! Under the stone is your poet!

After the death of his father, Burns became the head of the family and owner of the new farm. During the day he worked hard on the farm, and in the evenings he went dancing in Mochlin. He has a lot of poems about the girls he danced with.

In Mauchlin, Robert met Jean, who became his lifelong love. According to the old Scottish custom, they first entered into a secret marriage; for this they had to sign a “marriage contract”, according to which the lovers “recognize themselves forever as husband and wife.” Then Robert left to work to provide for his family. Jean was expecting a child. On September 3, 1786, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, who were named Robert and Jean after their parents.

There is a whole story connected with the “marriage contract”. Jean's parents broke this contract and filed a complaint against Burns with the church council and the court. There was a lot of anxiety. But by this time Burns had published a book and fame had come to him. Then the Edinburgh edition of Burns' poems and poems was published - after which he was greeted everywhere as a glorious bard. His voice was heard throughout Scotland. The church officially recognized the marriage - and the family began to live together. Soon Jean gave birth to another boy.

The poet turned thirty years old. He worked hard on the new farm, wrote poetry and even philosophical treatises. He refused fees:

Since then I have lived with one dream:

Serve the country to the best of your ability

(Even if they are weak!)

To bring benefit to the people -

Well, invent something

Or at least sing a song!..

The famous translator O. Wright-Kovalyova, in the preface to one of Burns’ books, writes that “the last years were the most difficult in Burns’ life. He was a civil servant - and an inveterate rebel, a happy father of a family - and the hero of many romantic adventures, a peasant son - a friend of the “most noble families”... On July 21, 1796, the poet died, leaving his family without any means. Burns was buried with pomp: regular troops marched ceremoniously to the cemetery, playing a crackling and soulless funeral march. Jean could not see Robert off: at that hour she gave birth to his fifth son. Friends took care of her and the children.”

Many years later, the English king granted Burns' widow a pension, but Jean refused the pension.

* * *
You read the biography (facts and years of life) in a biographical article dedicated to the life and work of the great poet.
Thank you for reading. ............................................
Copyright: biographies of the lives of great poets

Robert Burns, (Burns, Robert), Scottish poet. Born on January 25, 1759 in Alloway (County Ayr) in the family of gardener and tenant farmer William Burns. Robert and his brother Gilbert attended school for two years. In 1765, his father leased the Mount Oliphant farm, and Robert worked as an adult laborer from the age of 12, was malnourished and had a strained heart. He read everything he could get his hands on, from penny pamphlets to Shakespeare and Milton. At school he heard only English, but from his mother and old servants and from the same brochures he became familiar with the language of Scottish ballads, songs and fairy tales.

In 1777, his father moved to Lochley Farm near Tarbolton, and a new life began for Robert. In Tarbolton he found a company he liked and soon became its leader. In 1780, Burns and his friends organized a cheerful "Bachelors' Club", and in 1781 he joined the Masonic lodge. On February 13, 1784, his father died, and with the money left behind, Robert and Gilbert moved the family to the Mossgiel farm near Mauchlin. Even earlier, in 1783, Robert began to write down his youthful poems and rather stilted prose in a notebook. A relationship with the maid Betty Peyton led to the birth of his daughter on May 22, 1785. Local clergy took advantage of the opportunity and imposed penance on Burns for fornication, but this did not stop the laity from laughing when reading what was on the lists Holy fair And Saint Willie's Prayer.

At the beginning of 1784, Burns discovered the poetry of R. Fergusson and realized that the Scottish language was by no means a barbaric and dying dialect and was capable of conveying any poetic shade - from salty satire to lyrical delight. He developed the traditions of Fergusson, especially in the genre of the aphoristic epigram. By 1785 Burns had already gained some fame as the author of colorful friendly messages, dramatic monologues and satires.

In 1785, Burns fell in love with Jean Armor (1765–1854), the daughter of the Mauchlin contractor J. Armor. Burns gave her a written “undertaking” - a document that, according to Scottish law, certified an actual, albeit illegal, marriage. However, Burns's reputation was so bad that Armor broke the "engagement" in April 1786 and refused to take the poet as his son-in-law. Even before this humiliation, Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica. It is not true that he published his poems to earn money for the trip - the idea of this publication came to him later. Printed in Kilmarnock Poems predominantly in Scottish dialect (Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect) went on sale on August 1, 1786. Half of the circulation of 600 copies was sold by subscription, the rest was sold in a few weeks. Fame came to Burns almost overnight. Noble gentlemen opened the doors of their mansions to him. Armor dropped the claim and Betty Peyton was paid off with 20 pounds. On September 3, 1786, Jean gave birth to twins.

The local nobility advised Burns to forget about emigration, go to Edinburgh and announce a nationwide subscription. He arrived in the capital on November 29 and, with the assistance of J. Cunningham and others, concluded an agreement with the publisher W. Creech on December 14. During the winter season, Burns was in great demand in secular society. He was patronized by the "Caledonian Hunters", members of an influential club for the elite; At a meeting of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Scotland he was proclaimed "Bard of Caledonia". Edinburgh edition Poems(published April 21, 1787) attracted about three thousand subscribers and brought Burns about 500 pounds, including one hundred guineas, for which he, having listened to bad advice, ceded the copyright to Creech. About half of the money raised went to help Gilbert and his family in Mossgiel.

Before leaving Edinburgh in May, Burns met J. Johnson, a semi-literate engraver and fanatical lover of Scottish music, who had recently published the first edition of The Scots Musical Museum. From the autumn of 1787 until the end of his life, Burns was actually the editor of this publication: he collected texts and melodies, supplemented the surviving passages with stanzas of his own composition, and replaced lost or obscene texts with his own. He was so successful in this that without documented evidence it is often impossible to establish which are the folk texts and which are the Burns texts. For the “Museum”, and after 1792 for the more refined, but less vibrant “Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs” (1793–1805) by J. Thomson, he wrote more than three hundred texts, each with its own motive.

Burns returned triumphantly to Mochlin on July 8, 1787. Six months of glory did not turn his head, but they changed the attitude towards him in the village. The Armors welcomed him, and he resumed his relationship with Jean. But Edinburgh maid Peggy Cameron, who gave birth to Burns's child, sued him, and he returned to Edinburgh.

There, on December 4, he met an educated married lady, Agnes Craig M "Lehuz. Three days later, he dislocated his knee and, bedridden, began a love correspondence with “Clarinda,” as she called herself. The dislocation had more significant consequences. Burns used the doctor was familiar with the Commissioner of Excise in Scotland, R. Graham. Having learned about the poet’s desire to serve in the excise, he turned to Graham, who allowed Burns to undergo proper training in the spring of 1788 in Mochlin and Tarbolton and received a diploma in the alternative on July 14. source of income gave him the courage to sign a contract for the lease of Ellisland Farm on March 18.

Upon learning that Jean was pregnant again, her parents kicked her out of the house. Burns returned to Mauchlin on February 23, 1788 and, apparently, immediately recognized her as his wife, although the announcement took place only in May, and the church court approved their marriage only on August 5. On March 3, Jean gave birth to two girls, who died soon after. On June 11, Burns began working on the farm. By the summer of 1789 it became clear that Ellisland would not generate income in the near future, and in October Burns, through patronage, received the post of exciseman in his rural area. He performed it perfectly; in July 1790 he was transferred to Dumfries. In 1791 Burns refused the lease of Ellisland, moved to Dumfries and lived on the exciseman's salary.

Burns's creative work during the three years at Ellisland consisted mainly of texts for Johnson's Museum, with one serious exception - a story in verse Tam O'Shanter (Tam O" Shanter). In 1789 Burns met the antiquities collector Fr. Grose, who was compiling a two-volume anthology Scottish antiquity (The Antiquities of Scotland). The poet invited him to include in the anthology an engraving depicting the Alloway Church, and he agreed - on the condition that Burns would write a legend about witchcraft in Scotland to accompany the engraving. This is how one of the best ballads in the history of literature arose.

Meanwhile, passions flared up around the Great French Revolution, which Burns accepted with enthusiasm. Investigations began into the loyalty of government officials. By December 1792, so many denunciations had accumulated against Burns that Chief Exciseman William Corbet arrived in Dumfries to personally conduct an inquiry. Through the efforts of Corbett and Graham, it all ended with Burns being ordered not to talk too much. They still intended to promote him, but in 1795 he began to lose his health: rheumatism affected his heart, which had been weakened in adolescence. Burns died in Dumfries on July 21, 1796.

Burns is extolled as a romantic poet, both in the popular and literary sense of the term. However, Burns' worldview was based on the practical sanity of the peasants among whom he grew up. He essentially had nothing in common with romanticism. On the contrary, his work marked the last flowering of Scottish poetry in its native language - lyrical, earthly, satirical, sometimes mischievous poetry, the traditions of which were laid by R. Henryson (c. 1430 - c. 1500) and W. Dunbar (c. 1460 - c. 1530), forgotten during the Reformation and revived in the 18th century. A. Ramsay and R. Ferguson.

In 1785, Burns fell in love with Jean Armor (1765–1854), the daughter of the Mauchlin contractor J. Armor. Burns gave her a written “undertaking” - a document that, according to Scottish law, certified an actual, albeit illegal, marriage. However, Burns's reputation was so bad that Armor broke the "engagement" in April 1786 and refused to take the poet as his son-in-law. Even before this humiliation, Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica. It is not true that he published his poems to earn money for the trip - the idea of this publication came to him later. Printed in Kilmarnock Poems predominantly in Scottish dialect (Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect) went on sale on August 1, 1786. Half of the circulation of 600 copies was sold by subscription, the rest was sold in a few weeks. After this, Burns was accepted into the aristocratic literary circle of Edinburgh. Collected, processed and recorded about two hundred songs for the Scottish Musical Society. He started writing songs himself. Fame came to Burns almost overnight. Noble gentlemen opened the doors of their mansions to him. Armor dropped the claim and Betty Peyton was paid off with 20 pounds. On September 3, 1786, Jean gave birth to twins.

The local nobility advised Burns to forget about emigration, go to Edinburgh and announce a nationwide subscription. He arrived in the capital on November 29 and, with the assistance of J. Cunningham and others, concluded an agreement with the publisher W. Creech on December 14. During the winter season, Burns was in great demand in secular society. He was patronized by the "Caledonian Hunters", members of an influential club for the elite; At a meeting of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Scotland he was proclaimed "Bard of Caledonia". Edinburgh edition Poems(published April 21, 1787) attracted about three thousand subscribers and brought Burns about 500 pounds, including one hundred guineas, for which he, having listened to bad advice, ceded the copyright to Creech. About half of the proceeds went to help Gilbert and his family in Mossgiel.

LITERATURE

1. Wright-Kovaleva R. Robert Burns. M., 1965
2. Burns R. Poems . Poems ; Scottish ballads. M., 1976
3. Burns R. Poems – The Poetical Works. M., 1982