Letter reveals bashful Burns

HE is one of the world’s most famous poets, whose work is celebrated each year on his January 25 birthday.

But now it has emerged that Robert Burns did not want fame or fortune as he did not think much of his efforts.

His doubts emerge in a remarkable letter to his old school friend, William Niven, now on public display for the first time in more than a century.

Burns sent the letter to Niven in the Ayrshire town of Maybole in August 1786, shortly after publication of his first work, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. At the time the 27-year-old Burns was considering emigrating to Jamaica but his plans were shelved following the positive reaction to his poems.

Yet in writing to Niven, Burns seemed to play down the importance of his work. He wrote: ‘Never blaze my songs among the million, as I would abhor to hear every prentice mouthing my poor performances in the streets.

‘Every one of my Maybole friends are welcome to a copy, if they chuse... as a small mark of my respect for them: a respect as sincere as the love of dying saints.’

Dr Ralph McLean of the National Library of Scotland, where the letter will go on display tomorrow from 11am to 3pm, said: ‘In this letter it looks like Burns is shying away from fame but I think he’s being falsely modest.

‘I think he’s actually delighted that people were going around singing his songs.

‘Even when Burns was at the height of his success, he’s still being coy and shy.’