Robert Burns

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 1794

A wide-spread 18^th century myth held that at any time there lived purely natural poets, completely independent of any traditions. They were thought to dwell among ordinary people, which guarded them from civilization. So it was believed that the volume of Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786) finally made real the myth of a "heaven-taughl plowman" who created spontaneously as his feelings rushed out.

Robert Burns (Jan. 25, 1759, Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland — July 21, 1796, Dumfries Scotland) was born into a family of a religious and hardworking farmer of Ayrshire, in southwestern Scotland. In his childhood Burns discovered for himself the works of the Edinburgh poet Robert Fergusson (1750-1774), under whose guidance he came to love Scottish folk tradition and older poetry, and realized the literary potential of the Scottish regional dialects.

Robert, along with his brother Gilbert, had to carry on with too heavy farm work, and, as a consequence, his rheumatic heart troubled him throughout his brief life. Although the boy attended school whenever they could, Robert's literary, linguistic and philosophical education was largely a harvest of his own reading. Falling in love at 15, he composed his first song, and thus Love and Poetry began shaping his life. He matured so rapidly that by the 1786 Kilmarnock edition of his works he composed all the major long poems.

This volume, named so after the town of its publication, caused an extraordinary literary sensation. Although initially Burns meant it as a way to collect enough money for a passage to Jamaica, on which he decided after his farming misfortunes, now, as Caledonia's revered Bard, he was invited to the literary world of Edinburgh, where he showed that a peasant poet could be a no less bright conversationist and debater than the townfolk. While in Edinburgh, he successfully published a second edition of Poems (1787) of 3,000 copies which brought him a considerable sum. So he abandoned his plans to emigrate. But he also understood that once his novelty wore off his fame would go too.

In 1788, Burns received a post of a tax inspector, and he settled down with Jean Armour, his former lover and now his wife, at Ellisland, near Dumfries, performing his official duties along with farming. This farm failed, as did his three previous ones, so Burns settled with his family in the lively town of Dumfries. He was quite happy, except for chronic illness and money shortage, though he was an efficient employee, respected citizen and a devoted father.

In 1787, James Johnson, an engraver, engaged Burns in collecting Scottish folk songs for an anthology The Scots Musical Museum. Burns became so enthusiastic about the work that soon he was doing the main editing job for several volumes of the project. In addition, he was collecting, restoring and imitating old or writing new lyrics to dance melodies. For Burns such work was the most unselfish expression of his patriotic love; he even refused any payment, though in need of one, and worked on until his last hours.

Burns's poetry was largely written in Scots, a northern dialect of English spoken by the Scottish. Whenever he tried his pen in English, the outcome, except maybe for Afton Water, was bordering on sentimentality and common poetic diction. In his poetic evolution he owed much to the native tradition established in the golden age of Scottish poetry by Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, and other Scottish Chaucerians of the 14^th and 16^th centuries. Burns is highly considered not only the Scottish national bard but a beloved poet of all English-speaking nations. In every English home on New Year's Eve, people join hands and sing Burns' song Auld Lang Syne.

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