Chosen poem: A Red, Red, Rose
"What I love about this poem is that Burns is doing what we all try desperately to do when we are in love: to make the other person understand just how deep our love for them is.”
Chosen poem: The Vision
“But in essence this poem concerns the plight of the artist kept poor, only to find spiritual riches in a steady obedience to the command of the Genius.”
Chosen poem: For a’ that and a’ that
“No other poet has Burns’ gift for camaraderie. To him, fellowship was a religion, and through his poetry we get to feel that empathy is the greatest triumph of human nature.”
Chosen poem: To A Louse
“One of the things I love about Burns is his ability to address themes as great as love and death and yet effortlessly switch his focus to the mundane and commonplace with equal passion.”
Chosen poem: Ae Fond Kiss…
“Ae Fond Kiss is one of the great romantic poems of all times written by the greatest lyric poet of all times.”
Chosen poem: Tam O’Shanter
“'Tam O’Shanter' makes a riotous cautionary tale out of an uncomfortable national truth, pitting its vainglorious ‘everybam’ figure against demons both of the imagination and of the inner self.“
Chosen poem: Epigram to a Painter
“This scrap of a poem is a painful reminder that no matter how much artists hope to capture angels, most of us are really documenting our devils and then charging the public to peer at them.”
Chosen poem: Lovely Polly Stewart
“I went back to Dumfries to visit Burns’ last home and found the lines to half the verses engraved on a back window in a hidden room. I felt his company once more.
Thank you, Robert. I love you. x”
Chosen poem: The Address of Beelzebub
“This poem offers a very interesting, unusual slant on the Highland Clearances, as it deals with early attempts to prevent the Highlanders from emigrating to the New World. It made a strong impression on me as a poem, but it is particularly interesting that someone renowned as a lyric poet should also write such a powerful satirical work.”
Chosen poem: Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation
“Burns manages to rise above such petty politics to see the whole issue in context. He blames the Scots for selling their ain folk out; and the price was paid in English gold. This searing political insight was some two hundred years ahead of its time. Scotland's destiny rests in Scotland's hands.”
Chosen poem: John Anderson, my Jo
“‘John Anderson my Jo’ is one of my favourite love poems in the world. What do I love about this love poem? I love the way it follows a relationship over the course of a lifetime in two short stanzas. I love the way that it includes friendship in a marriage. Jo is the old Scots word for friend.”
Chosen poem: Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation
“For the frontispiece to what would become my first big seller, ‘Black and Blue’, I turned to Burns and ‘Parcel of Rogues’, a bitter poem about the rough wooing of Scotland. It chimed with one of the themes of the book and though I can’t recite it by heart, the hair on my scalp prickles whenever I hear it.”
Chosen poem: Tam O’Shanter
“What Burns means to me. …Burns commemorative stamps in 1966. Laurieknowe Primary School and Burns by heart. Southwestern speak. Ca’ The Yowes, My Love Is Like A Red, Red, Rose, To A Mouse, To A Louse. The Observatory, the murderer’s clogs, the drowned man’s skull, Sawney Bean and Tam O’Shanter. Bogles…“
Chosen poem: Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes
“I'm from Ayrshire, so Burns has always loomed large - school competitions and the like did not put me off. I sang 'Ca' the Yowes' at Burns suppers as a teenager, sometimes as the only woman present, and loved the eerie quiet of the words before I really knew what it meant.”
Chosen poem: Halloween
“Halloween was a magical time for me as a child - especially growing up in Ayrshire - and I loved fairy stories. I was also knew about the story poem Tam O' Shanter from a young age, witches and warlocks were firmly embedded in the stories of the area. I chose Halloween out of a sense of place and because I think Burns writes the poem with such verve and passion.”
Chosen poem: To A Mouse
“When Burns wrote, ‘I'm truly sorry Man's dominion, Has broken Nature's social union,’ well, we are still doing that today. But here’s a man who wrote that 250 years ago before anyone was thinking about conservation or the environment. He was just a man doing a job and writing what he saw. But he was also asking us to look for ourselves.”
Chosen poem: Ae Fond Kiss…
“For me, captured in this poem is what is throughout of Burns’ writing and music-making: an unbelievable level of empathy and sensitivity; the ability to capture, sometimes in the simplest way, a feeling that we can all relate to.”
Chosen poem: To a Louse
“‘ ‘O wad some Power the giftie gie us, 'To see oursels as ithers see us!’ I heard these lines many times growing up. I remember what a thrill it was when I first read this poem in Primary School and immediately recognised these two lines as words of wisdom plagiarised by my parents.”
Chosen poem: My Jean - a Fragment
“Is it because he was an awesome philanderer, or despite it, that Burns' understanding of love seems so acute? When he writes, as he often does, of melancholic partings, or the bittersweet victory of love in the battle against age and fate, he rises above the sentimental and presents us with a truth recognisable to everyone who knows what love is.”
Chosen poem: Holy Willie’s Prayer
“Burns intoxicated me; his legendary life of womanising, love making, drinking and debauchery just enthralled me. This was a man that could write such beautiful poems and yet could be so flawed and had endured such tragedy. I guess I recognised a kindred spirit in him; a tortured soul. He was simply a genius and this poem in particular is a work of genius.”
Chosen poem: Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation
“He was a man of the people, but he was also a man of the world. So whether he was nationalist with a large ‘n’ or a small ‘n’ – he was definitely an internationalist, who understood that some people get a rougher time than others – he was always on the side of the under-dog.”
Chosen poem: Selkirk Grace
“The great Rabbie Burns’ words are as relevant now as they were back then. I absolutely second what he has said and believe we should be thankful for the incredible ingredients Scotland produces. As a chef, there’s no place I’d rather be.”
Chosen poem: Ae fond Kiss….
“Everyone hates farewells but loves farewell songs. These lines published in 1792 in volume 4 of Johnston’s Scottish Musical Museum are a perfect description of sadness at leaving and thoughts of what might have been – the songwriter’s dream.”
Chosen poem: Epigram on Rough Roads
“For me Burns was one of the GREATEST poets and he continues to live through the lives of those who read his many poems. 'Tam O' Shanter' is a fantastic poem however, 'Epigram on Rough Roads' is my favourite and is witty and very much about life!!”