Robert Burns - A Story of Poetry and Prolific Love

On January 25th of each year, Scottish descendants celebrate "Robbie Burns Day." Today, his 252nd birthday, will be celebrated by the serving of a dish called Haggis; made from the organs of a sheep, boiled in a bag made from the sheep's stomach. I hear a "wee dram" of whiskey helps it all go down. 

You may know of Robert Burns, Scottish Poet. Chances are you've sung "Auld Lang Syne" on New Years Eve. "A Red, Red Rose" has been turned into a song by Carly Simon. Bob Dylan selected the same Burns' poem as having the biggest effect on his life. And John Steinbeck who wrote 'The Grapes of Wrath' took a title from the Burns' poem 'To a Mouse', which read: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley". "Man Was Made to Mourn" was referenced in speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and, subsequently, by Barack Obama.

He is also heralded in some circles as the Casanova of Scotland. According to casual research Robert Burns' love life was prolific. In the same year as he achieved his first fame as a poet, Jean Armour (later, his wife) produced twins while he swayed between her and Mary Campbell (Highland Mary). During this time he also fathered a child to a servant girl called May Cameron. On his next visit to Edinburgh the same thing happened with another servant girl. Simultaneously, he was in a passionate relationship with the respectable Agnes M’Lehose. His great song of parting "Ae fond kiss and then we sever" was written for her. Shortly after, Jean Armour, back in Ayrshire, produced another set of twins by him. He eventually married Jean and settled in the town of Dumfries in the south of Scotland where he died in 1796 at the age of 37 of a heart condition. He had nine children with Jean in total (only three survived infancy) but managed another with the niece of the landlady of the Globe Inn in Dumfries.

All of which goes to lend new meaning to his quote, "Fear no labor." :o)