Seriously, if you had to describe Robert Burns in three or four sentences, what'd you say?

[conuly]

(Maybe five sentences.)

Because, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think summing the man up as "He wrote Auld Lang Syne" is a bit... a bit... I don't know, just incomplete! And sure, it's not an essay, but even if your audience can be assumed to have never heard of Rabbie Burns, couldn't you say something else? It's like describing Shakespeare (the other Bard, of course - but if you didn't know that I'm shocked!) as "that guy who wrote Romeo and Juliet". It's true, but is that really how we want to sum him up?

Anyway, he may have written Auld Lang Syne, but he wrote neither the words nor the tune we use today, so it's all moot anyway.

I'm being a bit overly snarky. I'm sorry.

Comments

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you're referring to here, but when I was a kid, we celebrated Robert Burns day once a year. I think it might have been a holiday my mom made up, but I'm not sure. We'd eat Scottish food and my mom would read an obscure poem to us.

[conuly]

It's a real holiday.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Huh, shows what I know. You really are a fountain of information. Have you ever considered being on Jeopardy or something like that?

[conuly]

They have too many recent trivia questions. (Though I admit that I cried the day they had a section on Trek and none of the contestants managed to answer so much as a single question.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_supper

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Scotland's national poet. The "heaven-taught ploughman". Tax collector, alcoholic and womanizer. Socialist, Mason, advocate for Scots Home Rule. Folklorist (collector of traditional songs, among them Auld Lang Syne), lyricist and poet of (some say overwrought) Scots dialect.

[conuly]

He collected taxes? Seriously?

'Cause I'm the tax man, yeah, the tax man...

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

He trained as an excise tax collector and worked for this office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Customs_and_Excise); a highly respected position, guaranteed to win friends and influence people. Apparently he took the job in order to support his family.

More here... (http://www.robertburns.org.uk/robertburns_exciseman.htm)

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you're referring to here, but when I was a kid, we celebrated Robert Burns day once a year. I think it might have been a holiday my mom made up, but I'm not sure. We'd eat Scottish food and my mom would read an obscure poem to us.

[conuly]

It's a real holiday.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Huh, shows what I know. You really are a fountain of information. Have you ever considered being on Jeopardy or something like that?

[conuly]

They have too many recent trivia questions. (Though I admit that I cried the day they had a section on Trek and none of the contestants managed to answer so much as a single question.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_supper

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Scotland's national poet. The "heaven-taught ploughman". Tax collector, alcoholic and womanizer. Socialist, Mason, advocate for Scots Home Rule. Folklorist (collector of traditional songs, among them Auld Lang Syne), lyricist and poet of (some say overwrought) Scots dialect.

[conuly]

He collected taxes? Seriously?

'Cause I'm the tax man, yeah, the tax man...

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

He trained as an excise tax collector and worked for this office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Customs_and_Excise); a highly respected position, guaranteed to win friends and influence people. Apparently he took the job in order to support his family.

More here... (http://www.robertburns.org.uk/robertburns_exciseman.htm)