Robert Burns Research Paper

Robert Burns A Biography of Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and writer of traditional Scottish folk songs. He was born on January 25, 1759 in Alloway, Ayrshire. Burns was the oldest of seven children born to William Burness and his wife Agnes Broun. His father was the descendant of a line of tenant farmers. His wife was also eldest daughter of a tenant farmer. Burns’ parents were both not very well educated, but were deeply religious.

When Burns was born, his father worked as a gardener. However, the family grew too large for their cottage at Alloway and their needs to great for his father to support as a gardener. His father then decided to try his hand at farming and moved his family to the farm of Mount Oliphant.

At the age of six, Burns and his brother Gilbert were sent to John Murdoch’s School in Alloway. In 1768 Burns and his brother left the school and Burns briefly boarded as a pupil of John Murdoch at Ayrshire Grammar School in 1773. Through Murdoch’s influence, Burns read Shakespeare, Milton, Pope and Dryden. However, a great deal of Burns’ education took place in his own home. He was encouraged in his self-education by his father and his mother acquainted him with Scottish folk songs, legends, and proverbs. Burns also read widely in English literature, the Bible, and learned to read

For example, Burns further angered church authorities by having several indiscreet love affairs. In 1785 he fell in love with Jean Armour. She soon became pregnant, and although Burns offered to make her his wife, her father forbade their marriage. Soon enough, Armour had twins. In 1786, he moved to Edinburgh, where he was lionized by a fashionable society. While Burns was in Edinburgh, he successfully published a second edition of Poems, which earned him a considerable amount of money and popularity within society. From the proceeds he was able to tour the English border in 1787 and the highlands and finance another winter in Edinburgh. Soon after, Burns married Jean Armour. Then, Burns moved further up in society when in 1791 he was appointed to a position in the Excise Service and no longer worked on any