Burns, Robert

This program from the Famous Authors series offers an overview of Robert Burns’s life and major works, including occasional poems, reflective poems, dramatic poems, and lyrics. Beginning with a reading of “To a Mouse,” the video introduces Burns’s parents, William and Agnes Burns, who, though poor farmers, supported the writer’s education and surrounded him with Scottish folk songs. As he grew older, Burns rebelled against traditional Scottish values of chastity and modesty in both his life and his poetry, and engaged in a debate group with friends. After some personal scandal and the literary success of his first book of poems, Burns moved from the family farm to Edinburgh and used social connections to gain a position as an exciseman and to his literary advantage. His various love affairs and a lifelong search for intellectual equals left Burns unsatisfied. (35 minutes)