Robert Burns

A Short Analysis of Robert Burns’s ‘Halloween’

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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Written in 1785 and published the following year, ‘Halloween’ is not Robert Burns’s best-known poem, but it is one of his longest. Focusing on the traditions and activities associated with Halloween in eighteenth-century Scotland, ‘Halloween’ is best read aloud – but failing that, here’s the text of the full poem (all 252 lines of it!).

Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain,
The simple pleasure of the lowly train;
To me more dear, congenial to my heart,
One native charm, than all the gloss of art. – Goldsmith

Upon that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the rout is ta’en,
Beneath the moon’s pale beams;
There, up the Cove, to stray an’ rove,
Amang the rocks and streams
To sport that night;

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Five Fascinating Facts about Robert Burns

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The life and work of Robert Burns (1759-1796) in five pieces of trivia

1. Robert Burns referred to himself as ‘Spunkie’. In a letter of 1793, Burns took ‘Spunkie’ as his ‘signature’ and ‘symbol’ – and a surprising fact is that he never referred to himself as either Rabbie or Robbie Burns, even though he is often called ‘Robbie Burns’ or ‘Rabbie Burns’ by others. He did, however, call himself a whole range of things in his correspondence, from Rab and Rob to Robert and – our personal favourite – ‘Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin’.

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10 Robert Burns Poems Everyone Should Read

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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Robert Burns (1759-1796) wrote many classic poems and songs, so whittling down his complete works to just ten recommendations has been hard. Nonetheless, there are a few poems that simply have to be on any list of Burns’s best poems, so we hope that most of our choices here won’t seem too perverse or controversial.

But which is Robert Burns’s finest poem? We’ve presented the selection below in order, concluding with what we think is Burns’s best poem, but really there were a good four or five that could’ve taken the top spot

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