The Home of Robert Burns Study
All nations have their iconic, legendary individuals but Scotland is peerless. It has never lacked heroes and many of them are world-renowned: William Wallace; Alexander Fleming; John Logie Baird. But Scotland’s foremost figure is neither a general nor an innovator. Uniquely, the man Scots venerate above all others fills many roles – he is our greatest poet, our greatest song-writer, our greatest musical antiquary and arguably our wisest sage.
Although since his death in 1796 on average around four books a year have taken the life and works of Robert Burns as their object, it is difficult to explain everything Burns means to a Scot. HV Morton, writing in 1929 said Burns is “a warm living force; he is part of the daily life. I think of him whenever I see a kettle steaming gently against a Scottish fireside; he has sung his way into all the lovely common things of life… Burns is not a tradition; he is a living force. Scotland spoke in every word he uttered.”
He was never the underdog that we sometimes try to make him. Its remarkable how we try to oversimplify a life in order to try to understand them, but individuals, and particularly geniuses, will always defy attempts to be pigeonholed. It is the vocation of the Robert Burns World Federation to try better to understand and communicate the life and works of one of the most incisive minds the world has ever known.
