Stirling Observer

Lose yourself in the works of our great national bard

DIGGING INTO THE PAST with Dr Murray Cook

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Did you have haggis last week? Our National Bard Rabbie Burns grows in popularity each year, his poetry and heritage adds millions to our economy and yet perhaps you are put off by his slightly kitsch image?

Or perhaps you find his womanising off putting; or perhaps you find it distastefu­l that he considered working on a slave plantation?

He was certainly a complex person.

His poetry is woven through my life.

I courted my wife with A Red Red Rose, and Scots Wa Hae played and enormous role in our celebratio­n of the Battle of Bannockbur­n.

Tam o’shanter is simply amazing and its wit and wisdom is plain for all to see: the landlord’s laugh was ready chorus; nursing her wrath to keep it warm…and so on!

But to return to Scots Wa Hae which of course was inspired by a visit to Stirling and the Bore Stone.

The poem while wonderful is also a deeply seditious linking of the French and American Revolution­s to the Wars of Independen­ce, and a desire to overthrow the Hanoverian­s and bring back the Stuarts.

It was so dangerous that is was not published under his name in his lifetime.

And if you doubt its power, it was being sung by a revolution­ary in the 1820 Cato Street Plot to assassinat­e the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

Baird and Hardie’s beheading in Stirling later that year was part of the same civil unrest.

To large extent the haggis and the whisky (while excellent) rob Burns of his power and challenge.

So pick him up again, fetch yourself a pint o’wine and bring it a silver tassie and lose yourself in our greatest poet, you won’t regret it.

 ?? ?? Greatest The Robert Burns Monument in Stirling
Greatest The Robert Burns Monument in Stirling

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