It is none of my intention to turn this into a poetry blog; however, I find that today's topic is, again, poetry. For today is the 249th anniversary of the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Burns is one of my favorite poets. He was brilliant in his ability to be eloquent about commonplace topics, and in his ability to be sentimental while maintaining an aura of toughness. He's the only person I know of to write a song with great sentimental power that is also one of the greatest drinking songs the world has ever known. Also, reading his poems aloud is great fun, what with the Scotch dialect an' all.
So, the Burns mini-pendium:
A column about him at AllPoetry, with links to some of his best poems.
The only decent version of Auld Lang Syne on apparently all of YouTube.
Great Real McKenzies song from a great Burns poem, The Smokin' Bowl (the song, I'm not sure if that's the poem's name).
3 comments:
favorite poets?
may sarton
thomas merton
the sonnets of shakespeare
Twa Dogs is good, and the...what was it...Address to a Tailor or something.
Bruce: Love the sonnets. Yet to check out the other two. My poetry knowledge is somewhat lacking, but my other favorites include TS Eliot, EE Cummings, John Donne, Yeats, a bit of Keats.
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