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Representative Poems of Robert Burns (1897)
Representative Poems of Robert Burns - 1897 Author:Robert Burns Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF BURNS. In the southwest corner of Scotland, on the coast, some thirty miles from Glasgow, is the little town of Ayr. It was in a two-ro... more »omed cottage near by that Robert Burns was born. He inherited from his strict, sturdy father a proud, quick temper; from his mother the love of song. Besides his birthplace, Burns had three other homes in Ayrshire,— Mount Oliphant, Lochlea, and Mossgiel. Robert was a lad of seven when his father undertook to earn a living on the small upland farm of Mount Oliphant. He worked like a slave to do his part, as oldest boy, towards supporting the family. His regular attendance at school ended in his ninth year. After that he spent a few weeks at a time in several schools for some special purpose, but his principal teacher was his father. The one luxury that this wise father allowed himself was a library. Many books that he could not buy he would borrow ; and in the gloom that enshrouds this life of incessant toil, which impaired permanently the physical and mental powers of the poet, there is certainly one bright spot. Although the Burns boys rarely saw anybody but their own family, they had in their father a companion who made it his business to educate his children. The fact must not be overlooked that Robert read, besides many other authors, Addison, Pope, Richardson, Smollett, Milton, and Shakspere. He was an eager and industrious reader. He absorbed much of the Bible, and of A Select Collection of English Songs, his vade mecum, he writes : " I pored over them driving my cart, or walking to labor, song by song, verse by verse — carefully noting the tender or sublime from affectation and fustian." Into this monotonous life of drudgery and economy, brightened by the interesting reading and the profitable conversation ...« less