Volume 6 contains the complete Poems and Songs by Robert Burns.
All 557 of them.
Robert Burns was "the guy" who wrote that often sung song Auld Lang Syne, which I know of the first line and them mumble the rest, generally while drinking heavily (because it's New Year's Eve, obviously.) He was Scottish and their national poet. However, between my inability to read poetry and understand it and my inclination to pronounce everything with a bad Scottish accent as I mentally read it, I needed a mental break because there's no way I'm going to get through this without totally butchering the guy's works, memories and offend Scotland in the process. And if any book in the series was going to make me throw in the towel, this came close.
Since reading his poems didn't make sense to me, I looked on Youtube for videos of people reciting his poems. I figured that it's one thing to read his words, but another to actually understand them being said. Turns out the BBC had a done a series of videos of his works by famous Scottish actors (like David Tennant for one) so I got excited and figured yay, my next few hours! and clicked on the links. Turns out they were meant for UK audiences, and I was geographically restricted and unable to watch the videos. Damnit.
Robert Burns is the national poet of Scotland, and thus, his poetry reflects the hard nature of Scottish life. He took traditional folk songs and crafted them in his own unique way. For me, his poetry was pretty decent, but required a decent amount of re-reading to understand what it is I was reading. I liked it, but didn't see why adulation was warranted. And for the first time in this Harvard Classics, I looked at body of literature that's hundreds of years old and went, ok, I don't get why this is that awesome.
Perhaps it's the cultural influence. Even today, Burns Clubs still exist as a way of celebrating Burns and all things Scotland. Burns wrote a poem "Address to a Haggis" and they celebrate it by eating it and reciting the poem, which is a bit confusing to me because I think haggis is horrible. But then again, I drink Jeppson's Malort. We all need to hit rock bottom, as it were.
So even thought I liked but didn't love Burns, I can appreciate his cultural influence even if I don't get it.
All 557 of them.
Robert Burns was "the guy" who wrote that often sung song Auld Lang Syne, which I know of the first line and them mumble the rest, generally while drinking heavily (because it's New Year's Eve, obviously.) He was Scottish and their national poet. However, between my inability to read poetry and understand it and my inclination to pronounce everything with a bad Scottish accent as I mentally read it, I needed a mental break because there's no way I'm going to get through this without totally butchering the guy's works, memories and offend Scotland in the process. And if any book in the series was going to make me throw in the towel, this came close.
Since reading his poems didn't make sense to me, I looked on Youtube for videos of people reciting his poems. I figured that it's one thing to read his words, but another to actually understand them being said. Turns out the BBC had a done a series of videos of his works by famous Scottish actors (like David Tennant for one) so I got excited and figured yay, my next few hours! and clicked on the links. Turns out they were meant for UK audiences, and I was geographically restricted and unable to watch the videos. Damnit.
Robert Burns is the national poet of Scotland, and thus, his poetry reflects the hard nature of Scottish life. He took traditional folk songs and crafted them in his own unique way. For me, his poetry was pretty decent, but required a decent amount of re-reading to understand what it is I was reading. I liked it, but didn't see why adulation was warranted. And for the first time in this Harvard Classics, I looked at body of literature that's hundreds of years old and went, ok, I don't get why this is that awesome.
Perhaps it's the cultural influence. Even today, Burns Clubs still exist as a way of celebrating Burns and all things Scotland. Burns wrote a poem "Address to a Haggis" and they celebrate it by eating it and reciting the poem, which is a bit confusing to me because I think haggis is horrible. But then again, I drink Jeppson's Malort. We all need to hit rock bottom, as it were.
So even thought I liked but didn't love Burns, I can appreciate his cultural influence even if I don't get it.
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