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m ) £"^ > '-SSL ROBERT BURNS And the Poetic Image When Walter Scott was still a boy, and long before he became an inter- nationally acclaimed novelist, he happened to meet Robert Burns. The impressions ofthat encounter with his countryman remained with him all his life. They even colored his memory, as Scott confessed in a letter he wrote to Thomas Carlyle in 1827, five years before his death. OfAlexanderNasmythsfamousportraitofBurns,Scottcomplainedthat Burns's features there appeared "diminished as if seen in perspective." Scott'simageofthepoet,bycontrast,wasmoremagisterial POEMS. CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT ROBERT BURNS. /thinkInscountenancewasmoremassivethanitlooksinanyojthe into publicconsciousness until theendofhis life) andalso in thecentu- portraits..../His/eyealone, Ithink, indicatedthepoeticalcharacter riesthatfollowed.Inthenineteenthcentury,forexample,heacquiredthe and temperament It was large, andofa dark cast, andglowed reputationasScotland'snationalpoet;hebecamethevoiceofanoblebut (Isayliterallyglowed) whenhespokewithfeelingorinterest Inever decliningruralpeasantryatthehistoricalmomentofitsevolutionintoan sawsuchanothei eveinahumanhead, thoughIhaveseenthemost industrial working class; he articulated values ofhearth and home for a distinguishedmen inmytime risingBritishbourgeoisie;andhispluckyirreverencetowardinstitutional powers made him a folk hero foran American literati looking toescape EDINBURGH: Scott'srevisionist recollections—atraitforwhichhehadalreadybecome theshadowsofEurope. Whenweconsiderthemultiplevocalregistersof famousasa historical novelist—exemplifya truism about the life, work, his work (Scots and English, sentimental and ribald, ironic and sincere, PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, and legacy of Robert Burns: as great as Burns may have been during high and low), it becomes clear that Burns was a poet in and through AND SOLD DY WILLIAM CRLLCH. hisera and in person, his image assumed even grander, more"massive" whom multitudesspoke. M,DCC,LX:.KV1!. proportions in retrospect. One reason for this commemorative illusion may derive from Burns's acute emotional sensibilities, his knack for OnereasonforBurns'simmediateandenduringpopularitymaybethathe connecting with readers. This made him the virtual spokesperson for representstheimageofsimplicityinamoderneramostoftendefinedby several publics,bothfrom 1786-1796(that is,fromthe moment heburst itsspiralingcomplexities. Whatismore, Burnsseemed torecognizethat theinfluentialScottishpoet,critic,andnationalist,expressedoutragewhen herefle(tedonthehistoricalcommemoration(and,ashesawit,distortion) ofBurns. Thepopular BurnsClubs, hesaid in 1934, seemingly existed "to den) that KmuswasBurns,"instead makingthepoei ovei intotheimageol "middle-class buddies'whom[Burns]wouldhaveflayedalive.EdwinMuir, Macl>iarmid'speei andone timefriend,initiall) agreed,thoughhewasless iratethan bemused by Burns'sposthumous< limbupthesoii.il ladder. He remarked that "one is driven to ask what can have happened to Burns sinee Insdeath to make him now the impli<it propert) ol the middleand upper classes, when he was the propert) ol the poor man at the begin ning" Mmr's complaint here, similar to Mat Diarmid's, was that Burns's legacy had almost fully detached itsell from the man himself, to sa) nothingofhiswork. Burnshad becomethevictim ofthe "machinery''he oncemanipulatedtosuchbrillianteffeci But a little ovei a decade later, In the late 1940s, Muil seemed to have his mind in a way which speaks to Burns's lasting signili i.line Burns, he said, "is more a personage to us than a poet, more a figurehead than a personage, and more a myth than a ligm He has the power ot making any Scotsman" -or, Burns's world wide readers might add. any person whomsoi e whole- heartedly himsell and in that way perhaps more human." And so, Muiicontinued,when"weconsiderBumswemusttherefore"acknowledge "the Bumsiult inall itsforms."We must remember,that is,that themany publicswhichhaveadopted Burns,andwhich havemadeoverthepoet in theirown image,are Burns's"reward ... lorhavingthetemeritytoexpress the ordinary feelings<>t his people, and lor having becomea part oftheir RobertBurns, 1759-1796,Poet,byAlexanderNasmyth, 1787 lite" thiswaspartofhisappeal.Whereasmostrenownedpoetsin Burns'sday It isthisvitalrelationshipbetweenthepoet,hiswork,andhisimagewhuh wereproductsofurbansocietyandformaleducation(howevermuchthey theHaroldB. LeeLibrary'sRobertBurnsexhibitionseekstohighlight.We affected contact with "nature"), Burns grew up on a farm and enjoyed lUrgratitudetothediligent libi.uv stall, theuniversity'sgenerous comparatively modest schooling. But he converted his rural image friends,theCollegeofHumanities, and the IHah Scottish Association lor into a source of significant cultural value, telling a critic, Robert An- helpingto make'thisexhibitionpossible. derson, that it was "a part ofthe machinery ... of his poetical charac- ter to pass for an illiterate ploughman who wrote from pure inspiration." Such consciousness of social "machinery," of course, belies the presumed naivete of his status as "illiterate ploughman." And when Anderson "pointed out some evident traces of poetical imitation in [Burns's]verses,privately,hereadilyacknowledgedhisobligations...butin company he would not suffer his pretensions to pure inspiration to be challenged"lestitaffecthispeasant imageandthusthesaleofhiswork. Burns'simageandreputationcontinuedtoexpandinthecenturyfollowing hisdeath.BythetimeoftheScottishliteraryrenaissanceinthe 1920sand Cover:BurnsandtheVision,byJamesChristie. CourtesyofIrvineBurnsClub. '30s,thesawiestcriticsnolongerwrotesolelyaboutBurns'spoetryandlife, ©2009 BrighamYoungUniversity | HaroldB.LeeLibrary butratheraddressedBurnsasaculturalphenomenon.HughMacDiarmid, UFB theinfluentialScottishpoet,(ritii ,andnationalist,expressedoutragewhen hereflectedonthehistoricalcommemoration(and,ashesawit,distortion) ofBurns.The populai BurnsClubs, hesaid in 1934, seeminglye> denythat HumswasHum'.."insteadmakingthepoel ovei intotheimageol "middle-class'buddies'whom(Burns]wouldhaveILivedalive.EdwinMuir, MacDiarmid'speerandone-timefriend,initiallyagreed,thoughhewasless iratethanbemusedby Burns'sposthumousclimbupthesocial ladder. He remarked that "one is driven to ask what can have happened to Burns sincehisdeatli to make him now the implicit propertyofthe middleand upper classes, when he was the property ofthe poor man at the begin ning." Mini's complaint here, similai to MacDiarmid's, was that Burns's legaiv had almost fully detached itself from the man himself, to say nothingol hiswork Burnshad becomethevictimofthe"machinery"he once manipulated tosuch brilliant effecI But a little over a decade later, by the late lSM-Os. Mini seemed to have changed his mind in a way which speaks to Burns's lasting signifi- cance. Burns, he said, "is more a personage to us than a poet, more a figurehead than a personage, and more a myth than a figurehead... He has the power of making any Scotsman" -or, Burns's world wide readers might add. any person whomsoever—"more whole- heartedly himself and in that way perhaps more human." And so, Muircontinued,when"wetonsiderBurnswemusttherefore"a<knowledge "the Burnscult inall itsforms."We must remember,thatis,that themany publicswhichhaveadoptedBurns,andwhichhavemadeoverthepoet in theirownimage,areBurns's"reward ... forhavingthetemeritytoexpress theordinary feelingsol his people, and for havingbecomea partoftheir life" Itisthisvitalrelationshipbetweenthepoet,hiswork,andhisimagewhich theHaroldB LeeLibrary'sRobert Burnsexhibitionseekstohighlight.We expressourgratitudetothediligent librarystaff,theuniversity'sgenerous friends,theCollegeofHumanities,andtheUtahScottish Association for helpingtomakethisexhibition possible Cover:Burnsandthe Vision,byJamesChristie. CourtesyofIrvineBurnsClub. ©2009 BnghamYoungUniversity | HaroldB.LeeLibrary UPB