This week marks Robert Burns’s birthday.
Among the jollities, haggis stabbings, and recitations of Tam o’ Shanter, there is a controversy this year – Liz Lochhead’s dubbing of Burns as a sex pest in a Harvey Weinsteinish way.
The case rests on admittedly unpleasant boasting by Burns in a private letter, long known to scholars. But with the personalities and background circumstances so different, the Weinstein angle seems inappropriate.
It’s to be hoped it won’t impinge on Burns’s global status not only as a writer of peerless love poetry, but for his great radical verses, his witty political and social satires, and his love of nature and the landscapes of Scotland.
The choices of poems this week will try to cover some of these themes. The opening poem is Burns’s gently lyrical tribute to the girl in question, who became his wife, Jean Armour. Case closed?
I LOVE MY JEAN
Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly like the West;
For there the bony Lassie lives,
The Lassie I lo’e best:
There’s wild-woods grow, and rivers row,
And mony a hill between;
But day and night my fancy’s flight
Is ever wi’ my Jean.
~
I see her in the dewy flowers,
I see her sweet and fair;
I hear her in the tunefu’ birds,
I hear her charm the air:
There’s not a bony flower, that springs
By fountain, shaw, or green;
There’s not a bony bird that sings
But minds me o’ my Jean.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article