VII Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся
Старт в науке
Robert Burns’ romantic poetry
Автор работы награжден дипломом победителя II степени
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Introduction
Modern people often engage in self-knowledge, visiting museums and galleries, listening to music and reading different books. Everyone knows that reading is a very important part of successful and prospective self-education, but very few people are interested in reading poems of talented and great poets nowadays.
This way, I conducted a short survey among students in my school to find out what they know about romantic genre of poetry and one of the most prominent representatives of this genre, Robert Burns.
As a result, I managed to interview 30 students, 50% of whom couldn’t answer my questions at all, 30% of them knew some facts about romantic era in literature and a few facts about Robert Burns and only 20% of all students answered my questions properly. So, I was disappointed with the results of my survey and formulated a hypothesis: Robert Burn’s romantic poetry isn’t popular with modern teenagers.
After this survey I decided to work on this project and I had a few purposes of my work:
To find out what romantic poetry is;
To tell people about Robert Burn’s life and poems;
To analyze Robert Burn’s romantic lyrics;
To interest people in learning literature;
I used the following resources to make this project:
Learning material on the topic.
The results of the survey organized among students at school.
Robert Burn’s poetry translated by Marshak.
Books about Robert Burns biography.
Text analysis.
Theoretical part
Romantic poetry
Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe at the end of the 18th century. This genre of poetry is associated with using language which expresses honest feelings, emotions and thoughts of the author. Romantic poems are often dedicated to true love and personal experience of the author who wants to share it with other people and tell about his happiness or disappointment.
One of the representatives of this kind of poetry was a Scottish poet Robert Burns, who is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. [App#1]
He is the best known of the poets who have ever written in the Scottish language. He became a source of inspiration to the founders of democratic, liberal and socialist movements around the world.
According to the critic Raymond Bentman «Robert Burns is the first truly modern poet in British literature».
Burns` childhood and education
Robert Burns was born on January(25,1759), in a small clay cottage at Alloway in Scotland. His father, William Burns, was a poor farmer. But anyway he tried to give his son the best education he could afford. Robert was sent to school at the age of six, but as his father could not pay for his two sons, Robert and his brother Gilbert attended school in turn.
When not at school, the boys helped their father with his work in the fields. Robert was a plough boy working from morning till night. He strained his heart, he suffered from severe attacks of rheumatic fever. The school was closed some months after the boys had begun attending it, and William Burns together with his neighbours invited a clever young man, Murdoch by name, to teach their children languages and grammar.
Robert was a capable boy and he managed to get education. So, with the help of his new teacher, he had a good knowledge of English, learned French and Latin and became fond of reading.
Early years of his romantic poetry
Burns started writing poems at the age of seventeen. He composed verses to the melodies of old folk-songs, which he had admired from his early childhood.
As he was a very attractive, eloquent young man he fell in love easily and knew how to use women favor. Although he had a lot of honest relationships with beauties from the labor strata society he had some troubles with women. For example, the affair with a married woman Gin Armor forced him to leave his place of residence. Robert’s relationship with his wife’s relatives was also controversial and unstable.
Due to this, Robert Burns writes a very soulful poem- «Farewell To Eliza» in 1792.
«Farewell To Eliza»
From thee, Eliza, I must go,
And from my native shore;
The cruel fates between us throw
A boundless ocean's roar:
But boundless oceans, roaring wide,
Between my love and me,
They never, never can divide
My heart and soul from thee.
Farewell, farewell, Eliza dear,
The maid that I adore!
A boding voice is in mine ear,
We part to meet no more!
But the latest throb that leaves my heart,
While Death stands victor by, -
That throb, Eliza, is thy part,
And thine that latest sigh!
In this poem the author describes his tragic experience in love and writes how it is difficult to break down with your lover. Burns shows his sincere feelings, emotions and excruciating heartache here.
Burns was a remarkable lyric poet. In his lyrical poems Robert Burns glorifies true love and friendship, free from any motives of gain. In all his works he remains the bard of freedom.
Based on a folk song, Robert Burns wrote his poem “A Red Red Rose“ in 1794 to be sung not read. This poem was written during a dramatic period of his life, when he was ready to leave his homeland and his beloved-Gin Armor, who was his wife.
“A Red Red Rose“
Oh my love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
Oh my love is like the melody,
That's sweetly played in tune
As fair art thou, my bonie lass
So deep in love am I;
And I will love though still, my dear,
Till all the seas gang dry.
Till all the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt with the sun!
And I will love though still, my dear,
While the sands of life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only love!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my love,
Though it were ten thousand miles!
Burns compares his true love with a beautiful image of a red rose in this poem and he honestly believes to meet his lovely women in the future.
The analysis of the poem «A Red, Red rose»
This poem expresses the poet ’s deep and firm love towards his beloved by the use of the three images: the dry seas, the melted rocks and the sands of life.
Moreover, there are a few similes in the poem. As an example, we can read the sentences:
Oh my love is like a red, red rose,
Oh my love is like the melody
When writing this poem Robert Burns used the hyperbole to make his literature more interesting to the reader. So, there are some hyperboles in phrases:
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
And I will come again, my love,
Though it were ten thousand miles!
There is alliteration in the first paragraph between the words ‘farewell’ and ‘forever’. The ‘f’ sound is repeating throughout the poem during the words – fond, fancy, fare-thee-well, fortune, first, fairest etc.
So, these stylistic devices make the poem more expressive and realistic.
The variety of Burn’s romantic lyrics
Burns` Romantic Lyrics are various and some of his poems contrast true love and money. In the struggle for happiness with the beloved poor, ends in victory in some poems, in others - money wins. So now I would like to present you such a poem that is called « My Collier Lad'».
My Collier Lad'
O, where live you my lovely girl,
And tell me how they call (name) you?'
' My name,' she says, ' is Mistress Jean,
And I follow the collier lad.'
' O, see you not yonder hills and dales
The sun shines on so finely?
They all are mine, and they shall be yours, If you will leave your collier lad!'
' And you shall go in gay attire,
Well dressed up so gaudy,
And one to wait on every hand, If you will leave your collier lad!'
' Though you had all the sun shines on,
And the earth conceals so lowly, I would turn my back on you and it all,
And embrace my collier lad.'
' I can win my five pennies in a day,
And spend it at night full finely (well),
And make my bed in the collier's corner
And lie down with my collier lad.'
' Love for love is the bargain for me,
Though the little cottage-house should hold me,
And the world before me to win my bread –
And fair fall (good befall) my collier lad!'
In this poem Robert Burns describes an image of a girlfriend of the coal miner who rejects all the suggestions of a noble lord. The girlfriend of the coal miner is a rich heir, but anyway she has been living in a farmhouse and waiting for her lovely solder for many years.
In this poem the author admires the woman who is loyal to the man she loves and Burns shows the beauty of the woman in her devotion.
The translations of Burn’s works
Robert Burns knows the whole world. The first translations of Burns appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. Later, many translators were involved in the poetry of Burns. And finally, our reader was introduced to Samuel Marshak's remarkable translations.
“Marshak made Burns Russian, leaving him a Scotsman,” wrote Alexander Twardowski.
Samuel Marshak is the creator of the classic children's poetry, on which more than one generation of Soviet and Russian children has grown. He was one of the world's largest experts on English classical poetry.
In the 1950s, Samuel Marshak traveled around England, he translated the sonnets of William Shakespeare, the poems of Rudyard Kipling, George Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, the works of Alan Milne and Gianni Rodari. He wrote: “I did not translate according to an order, but for love — just as I wrote my own lyric poems.”
But the translations of Robert Burns hold a special place. Hundreds of Burn’s poems were perfectly translated by a famous Russian writer Marshak. These translations are far from the original but they are very simple, emotional and close to the Burn’s strings.
All numerous translations belonging to S. Marshak are kept in Burns’s house-museum in Alloway. This collection includes the most famous songs, ballads and epigrams of the Scottish poet.
Memory of genius
Years of backbreaking work on the farm and unhappy personal life told sadly upon him. He died of rheumatic fever at the age of 37 in 1796 on July 21.
Since Burns was Scottish, his artistic achievements seem outside the mainstream of eighteenth-century English literature.
Nowadays Burns is a national hero and a cultural icon in Scotland. In 2009 he was designated the Greatest Scot by a poll conducted by Scottish television channel STV. Sir Walter Scott, the keen-eyed historian, once described the Ploughman Poet with great admiration: "His person was strong and robust; his manners rustic, not clownish, a sort of dignified plainness and simplicity which received part of its effect perhaps from knowledge of his extraordinary talents."
The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to honour Burns with a commemorative stamp, marking the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956.[App#2]
The Royal Mail has issued postage stamps commemorating Burns three times.
Conclusion
Writing about the author’s life and learning his romantic poetry I came to the conclusion that our modern society should be proud of Robert Burns and appreciate his fantastic literature.
In conclusion, I conducted another survey among students at my school to check whether the results are changed or not. Fortunately, the results became much better and now 85% of all participated in my survey students are interested in romantic poetry of Robert Burns and in literature at all. Moreover, most students are reading the biography about Robert Burns and learn by heart his poems.
So I hope that my project will solve the problem I posed at the beginning of my project and modern society will become more attentive to genius writers.
Apps
App#1
App#2