robertburns

<p>The last person to play this rare boxwood flute was likely its owner, James Glencairn Burns, son of Robert Burns. Claire Mann is currently the only musician with permission to play it, &amp; the flute – &amp; Claire – will go on tour as part of a wider fundraising campaign called Saving The Home of Auld Lang Syne which will be launched later this year.</p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62wly2qydno" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62wly2qydno"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6</span><span class="invisible">2wly2qydno</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/music/" rel="tag">#music</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/flute/" rel="tag">#flute</a> <a href="/tags/19thcentury/" rel="tag">#19thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/musichistory/" rel="tag">#musichistory</a></p>

<p>Amang the Friends of Early Days<br>9 September, Dumfries – tickets £6.13</p><p>Celebrating the joint residency at Robert Burns Ellisland Museum of Scots Makar Peter Mackay &amp; former Jamaican Poet Laureate Lorna Goodison. They will reflect on how the local landscape shaped Burns’ writing in Scots, &amp; explore how nature influences their own work – in Gaelic, &amp; in the fusion of English &amp; Jamaican Creole</p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/amang-the-friends-of-early-days-tickets-1611560794719" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/amang-the-friends-of-early-days-tickets-1611560794719"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/amang-t</span><span class="invisible">he-friends-of-early-days-tickets-1611560794719</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/jamaican/" rel="tag">#Jamaican</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/gaelic/" rel="tag">#Gaelic</a> <a href="/tags/gaidhlig/" rel="tag">#Gaidhlig</a> <a href="/tags/creole/" rel="tag">#Creole</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#Robertburns</a></p>

<p>Ellisland, 1791</p><p>Dear Sir:</p><p>Thou eunuch of language; thou Englishman, who never was south the Tweed; thou servile echo of fashionable barbarisms; thou quack, vending the nostrums of empirical elocution…</p><p>—Robert Burns, Letter to a critic</p><p>Today, 1 September, is World Letter-Writing Day 📮 </p><p><a href="https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/thou-pickle-herring-in-the-puppet" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="news.lettersofnote.com/p/thou-pickle-herring-in-the-puppet"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">news.lettersofnote.com/p/thou-</span><span class="invisible">pickle-herring-in-the-puppet</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/lettersofnote/" rel="tag">#LettersofNote</a> <a href="/tags/correspondence/" rel="tag">#correspondence</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/critics/" rel="tag">#critics</a> <a href="/tags/insults/" rel="tag">#insults</a></p>

<p>From the Caribbean to Caledonia: Two National Bards in Conversation</p><p>In this special edition of the Scottish Poetry Library podcast, Scotland’s current Makar, Peter Mackay, &amp; the former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, Lorna Goodison, discuss Robert Burns, Bob Marley, Dante’s Inferno, the Gaelic &amp; Jamaican tongues, &amp; much more</p><p><a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/podcast/from-the-caribbean-to-caledonia-two-national-bards-in-conversation/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/podcast/from-the-caribbean-to-caledonia-two-national-bards-in-conversation/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.</span><span class="invisible">uk/podcast/from-the-caribbean-to-caledonia-two-national-bards-in-conversation/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/jamaican/" rel="tag">#Jamaican</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/scotland/" rel="tag">#Scotland</a> <a href="/tags/jamaica/" rel="tag">#Jamaica</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/podcast/" rel="tag">#podcast</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/bobmarley/" rel="tag">#BobMarley</a> <a href="/tags/dante/" rel="tag">#Dante</a> <a href="/tags/gaelic/" rel="tag">#Gaelic</a> <a href="/tags/gaidhlig/" rel="tag">#Gaidhlig</a> <a href="/tags/language/" rel="tag">#language</a> <a href="/tags/minoritylanguages/" rel="tag">#minoritylanguages</a></p>

<p>SCOTTISH LITERARY REVIEW 17/2 (Autumn/Winter 2025)</p><p>The latest issue of Scottish Literary Review is online now via Project MUSE (institutional access required). Print copies will be in the mail to subscribers shortly! Papers range from medieval poetry, through 18th- &amp; 19th-century literature, to Muriel Spark &amp; the Brontës</p><p>@litstudies </p><p><a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55415" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>muse.jhu.edu/issue/55415</a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/medieval/" rel="tag">#medieval</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/19thcentury/" rel="tag">#19thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/20thcentury/" rel="tag">#20thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/jameshogg/" rel="tag">#JamesHogg</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/murielspark/" rel="tag">#MurielSpark</a> <a href="/tags/brontes/" rel="tag">#Brontes</a></p>

<p>Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference<br>17 January, University of Glasgow – £25 (includes tea, coffee, lunch, &amp; a toast) </p><p>A day conference exploring the life, work, &amp; legacy of Robert Burns.This year, the conference theme is the Burns Supper: a global phenomenon that celebrates its 225th anniversary in 2026.</p><p>@litstudies </p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for-robert-burns-studies-conference-tickets-1851549627779" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for-robert-burns-studies-conference-tickets-1851549627779"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-</span><span class="invisible">for-robert-burns-studies-conference-tickets-1851549627779</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/song/" rel="tag">#song</a> <a href="/tags/romanticism/" rel="tag">#romanticism</a> <a href="/tags/burnssupper/" rel="tag">#BurnsSupper</a></p>

<p>I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion<br>Has broken Nature’s social union,<br>An’ justifies that ill opinion,‍‍<br>‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍Which makes thee startle,<br>At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,‍‍<br>‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍An’ fellow-mortal!</p><p>—Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785”</p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/scots/" rel="tag">#Scots</a> <a href="/tags/scotlsanguage/" rel="tag">#Scotlsanguage</a> <a href="/tags/environmentalism/" rel="tag">#environmentalism</a> <a href="/tags/naturewriting/" rel="tag">#naturewriting</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thCentury</a> <a href="/tags/romanticism/" rel="tag">#Romanticism</a> <a href="/tags/november/" rel="tag">#November</a> <a href="/tags/winter/" rel="tag">#winter</a></p>

<p>Burns and Nature<br>21 January, Glasgow – free</p><p>An exploration of Robert Burns’s relationship to nature, told through poetry, spoken word &amp; film.</p><p>This event, presented in partnership with the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow, will examine Burns’s relationship to place, his life as a farmer, &amp; his perspective on humanity’s relationship to the natural world.</p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/burns-and-nature-tickets-1975112411391" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/burns-and-nature-tickets-1975112411391"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/burns-a</span><span class="invisible">nd-nature-tickets-1975112411391</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/environmentalism/" rel="tag">#environmentalism</a> <a href="/tags/nature/" rel="tag">#nature</a></p>

<p>Robert Burns &amp; the Glenriddell Manuscripts<br>22 January 2026, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh – free</p><p>Discover the incredible story of the Glenriddell Manuscripts – the largest collection of Robert Burns’s original writings in the world.</p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-burns-and-the-glenriddell-manuscripts-tickets-1975276014733" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-burns-and-the-glenriddell-manuscripts-tickets-1975276014733"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-</span><span class="invisible">burns-and-the-glenriddell-manuscripts-tickets-1975276014733</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/song/" rel="tag">#song</a> <a href="/tags/letters/" rel="tag">#letters</a> <a href="/tags/manuscripts/" rel="tag">#manuscripts</a></p>

<p>Up in the morning’s no for me,<br>Up in the morning early;<br>When a’ the hills are cover’d wi’ snaw,<br>I’m sure it’s winter fairly… </p><p>—“Up in the Morning Early”, by Robert Burns – poet of the people 🫡</p><p><a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/morning-early/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/morning-early/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.</span><span class="invisible">uk/poem/morning-early/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thCentury</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/winter/" rel="tag">#winter</a></p>

<p>Grant me, indulgent Heaven, that I may live, <br>To see the miscreants feel the pains they give; <br>Deal Freedom’s sacred treasures free as air, <br>Till Slave and Despot be but things that were.</p><p>—Robert Burns, “Lines Inscribed in a Lady’s Pocket Almanac”</p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/liberty/" rel="tag">#liberty</a> <a href="/tags/justice/" rel="tag">#justice</a> <a href="/tags/freedom/" rel="tag">#freedom</a></p>

<p>Atween November’s end and noo<br>there’s really nithin else tae do<br>but climb inside a brindlet coo<br>and dream o Spring,<br>fur Winter’s decked hur breist and broo<br>wi icy bling…</p><p>—W.N. Herbert, “Rabbie, Rabbie, Burning Bright” <br>published in OMNESIA (Remix) (Bloodaxe Books, 2013)</p><p>Warming up for Burns Night …</p><p><a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/rabbie-rabbie-burning-bright/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/rabbie-rabbie-burning-bright/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.</span><span class="invisible">uk/poem/rabbie-rabbie-burning-bright/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/scots/" rel="tag">#Scots</a> <a href="/tags/scotslanguage/" rel="tag">#Scotslanguage</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/standardhabbie/" rel="tag">#StandardHabbie</a> <a href="/tags/winter/" rel="tag">#winter</a></p>

<p>Level Vibes: Burns Night 2026</p><p>Level Vibes spotlights the relationship between Scotland &amp; Jamaica through the creativity of Jamaican poets, curated by Jamaican artist Fabian Thomas.</p><p>You can read the poems online, as well as articles examining Burns’s attitudes to slavery &amp; Scotland’s connections with Jamaica during the poet’s lifetime</p><p><a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/burns-night-2026/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/burns-night-2026/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.</span><span class="invisible">uk/burns-night-2026/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/scotland/" rel="tag">#Scotland</a> <a href="/tags/jamaica/" rel="tag">#Jamaica</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/slavery/" rel="tag">#slavery</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a></p>

<p>May Liberty meet wi’ success!<br>May Prudence protect her frae evil!<br>May tyrants and tyranny tine i’ the mist,<br>And wander their way to the devil!</p><p>—Robert Burns, “Here’s a Health to them that’s awa” (c. 1792)</p><p>A poem In advance of Burns Night </p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/heres_a_health_to_them_thats_awa/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/heres_a_health_to_them_thats_awa/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns</span><span class="invisible">/works/heres_a_health_to_them_thats_awa/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/liberty/" rel="tag">#liberty</a> <a href="/tags/tyranny/" rel="tag">#tyranny</a></p>

<p>“On the dirt roads of Arkansas I first met Robert Burns…” </p><p>Currently on the BBC iPlayer: writer, poet, &amp; activist Dr Maya Angelou goes on a pilgrimage to the home of Robert Burns (originally broadcast in 1996 to mark the bicentenary of Burns’s death)</p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013vcs" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013vcs"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013</span><span class="invisible">vcs</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/mayaangelou/" rel="tag">#MayaAngelou</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/romanticism/" rel="tag">#romanticism</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a></p>

<p>I murder hate by flood or field, <br>Tho’ glory&#x27;s name may screen us; <br>In wars at home I’ll spend my blood—<br>Life-giving wars of Venus.<br>The deities that I adore<br>Are social Peace and Plenty;<br>I’m better pleas’d to make one more,<br>Than be the death of twenty…<br> <br>—Robert Burns, “I Murder Hate”</p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/romanticism/" rel="tag">#romanticism</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a></p>

<p>Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;<br>Ae fareweel, and then forever!<br>Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,<br>Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee…</p><p>—Robert Burns<br>published in SELECTED POEMS &amp; SONGS (OUP, 2013)</p><p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/selected-poems-and-songs-9780199682324" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="global.oup.com/academic/product/selected-poems-and-songs-9780199682324"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">global.oup.com/academic/produc</span><span class="invisible">t/selected-poems-and-songs-9780199682324</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/romanticism/" rel="tag">#romanticism</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/song/" rel="tag">#song</a> <a href="/tags/folksong/" rel="tag">#folksong</a> <a href="/tags/lovesong/" rel="tag">#lovesong</a></p>

<p>Dear Robert Burns,</p><p>You skipped the big town streets just like I done, you ducked the crosstown cop just like I ducked, you dodged behind a beanpole to beat the bigtime dick and you very seldom stopped off in any big city where the rigged corn wasn’t drying nor the hot vine didn’t help you do your talking…</p><p>“To That Man Robert Burns”<br>—Woody Guthrie, June 9, 1947<br>Published in Woody Guthrie, Born To Win (Macmillan, 1965)</p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/woodyguthrie/" rel="tag">#WoodyGuthrie</a></p>

<p>From 2020 – Prof Kirsteen McCue, Prof Nigel Leask, &amp; Dr Craig Lamont discuss the importance of the Kilmarnock edition of POEMS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT for Burns, &amp; the significance of the copy of the volume donated by Craig Sharp to Glasgow University’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies </p><p>@litstudies </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1LzFCI1bNs&amp;feature=youtu.be" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1LzFCI1bNs&amp;feature=youtu.be"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1LzFC</span><span class="invisible">I1bNs&amp;feature=youtu.be</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/romanticism/" rel="tag">#romanticism</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/bookhistory/" rel="tag">#BookHistory</a></p>

<p>My Son, these maxims make a rule,<br>An’ lump them aye thegither; <br>The Rigid Righteous is a fool,<br>The Rigid Wise anither…</p><p>—Robert Burns, “Address to the Unco Guid, or the Ridgidly Righteous”</p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/humour/" rel="tag">#humour</a></p>

<p>O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us<br>To see oursels as others see us!<br>It wad frae monie a blunder free us<br>An’ foolish notion:<br>What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,<br>And ev’n Devotion!</p><p>—Robert Burns, “To a Louse”<br>from Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect: The Luath Kilmarnock Edition, illustrated by Bob Dewar</p><p><a href="https://luath.co.uk/products/poems-chiefly-in-the-scottish-dialect?variant=42807652581526" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="luath.co.uk/products/poems-chiefly-in-the-scottish-dialect?variant=42807652581526"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">luath.co.uk/products/poems-chi</span><span class="invisible">efly-in-the-scottish-dialect?variant=42807652581526</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/humour/" rel="tag">#humour</a></p>

<p>Is there for honest Poverty<br>That hings his head, an’ a’ that;<br>The coward slave—we pass him by,<br>We dare be poor for a’ that!<br>For a’ that, an’ a’ that,<br>Our toils obscure an’ a’ that,<br>The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,<br>The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.</p><p>—Robert Burns</p><p><a href="https://poets.org/poem/mans-man" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>poets.org/poem/mans-man</a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/equality/" rel="tag">#equality</a></p>

<p>Ellisland, 1791</p><p>Dear Sir:</p><p>Thou eunuch of language; thou Englishman, who never was south the Tweed; thou servile echo of fashionable barbarisms; thou quack, vending the nostrums of empirical elocution; thou marriage-maker between vowels and consonants, on the Gretna-green of caprice…</p><p>—Robert Burns, Letter to a critic<br>via <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@lettersofnote" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>lettersofnote</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/thou-pickle-herring-in-the-puppet" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="news.lettersofnote.com/p/thou-pickle-herring-in-the-puppet"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">news.lettersofnote.com/p/thou-</span><span class="invisible">pickle-herring-in-the-puppet</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/burnsnight/" rel="tag">#BurnsNight</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/lettersofnote/" rel="tag">#LettersofNote</a> <a href="/tags/correspondence/" rel="tag">#correspondence</a> <a href="/tags/letters/" rel="tag">#letters</a> <a href="/tags/critics/" rel="tag">#critics</a> <a href="/tags/insults/" rel="tag">#insults</a></p>

<p>Robert Burns &amp; the How-to of Barrel Gauging</p><p>“Alongside the expansion of the state in this period, scientific advances greatly enhanced methods for measuring and taxing goods, and in turn required officials proficient in these complex practices.”</p><p>James Fox looks at Robert Burns’s own copy of The Excise Officer’s Pocket Companion</p><p><a href="https://howtobook.hypotheses.org/5697" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>howtobook.hypotheses.org/5697</a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/history/" rel="tag">#history</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/18thcentury/" rel="tag">#18thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/bookhistory/" rel="tag">#BookHistory</a> <a href="/tags/historyofscience/" rel="tag">#HistoryofScience</a> <a href="/tags/historyofmathematics/" rel="tag">#HistoryofMathematics</a></p>

<p>Hamish Henderson, Burns &amp; Music<br>21 June, Dundee Central Library – free</p><p>Prof Fred Freeman of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland talks about two great songsters &amp; poets, Hamish Henderson &amp; Robert Burns – both of whom redefined Scottish culture &amp; provided a national &amp; international vision of the country </p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hamish-henderson-burns-and-music-tickets-1374121928679" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hamish-henderson-burns-and-music-tickets-1374121928679"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hamish-</span><span class="invisible">henderson-burns-and-music-tickets-1374121928679</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/song/" rel="tag">#song</a> <a href="/tags/hamishhenderson/" rel="tag">#HamishHenderson</a> <a href="/tags/robertburns/" rel="tag">#RobertBurns</a> <a href="/tags/scots/" rel="tag">#Scots</a> <a href="/tags/scotslanguage/" rel="tag">#Scotslanguage</a> <a href="/tags/culture/" rel="tag">#culture</a> <a href="/tags/identity/" rel="tag">#identity</a> <a href="/tags/dundee/" rel="tag">#Dundee</a></p>