Robert burns, died

July 21st , 1796

Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) is the best known of the poets who have written in Lowland Scots. Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often times revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known today across the world include A Red, Red Rose, To a Louse, and To a Mouse.

He was writing at his best, and in 1790 had produced Tam o Shanter. About this time he was offered and declined an appointment in London on the staff of the Star newspaper, and refused to become a candidate for a newly-created Chair of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, although influential friends offered to support his claims.

After giving up his farm he removed to Dumfries. It was at this time that, being requested to furnish words for The Melodies of Scotland, he responded by contributing over 100 songs, on which perhaps his claim to immortality chiefly rests, and which placed him in the front rank of lyric poets. His worldly prospects were now perhaps better than they had ever been; but he was entering upon the last and darkest period of his career.

He had become soured, and moreover had alienated many of his best friends by too freely expressing sympathy with the French Revolution, and the then unpopular advocates of reform at home. His health began to give way; he became prematurely old, and fell into fits of despondency; and the habits of intemperance, to which he had always been more or less addicted, grew upon him.

He died on July 21, 1796. Within a short time of his death, money started pouring in from all over Scotland to support his widow and children.

More From This Day

calendar 1928

John B. Keane, born

July 21, 1928

calendar 1922

Free State army takes Waterford

July 21, 1922

calendar 1920

Twelve people die in Belfast riots

July 21, 1920

calendar 1918

Maurice Lindsay, born

July 21, 1918

calendar 1860

Chauncey Olcott, born

July 21, 1860

Related Countries

blog Scotland

WW1 posters

WW1 posters

blog Scotland

ladies from hell

ladies from hell

blog Scotland

great highland bagpipes

Scottish Great Highland Bagpipes

blog Scotland

scottish small pipes

scottish small pipes

calendar Scotland

Henry McLeish resigned as Scotlands First Minister

November 08, 2001

calendar Scotland

Naomi Mitchison, prolific Scottish writer, died

January 11, 1999

calendar Scotland

Election for the new Scottish Parliament

May 06, 1999

calendar Scotland

Scottish Parliament on The Mound, Edinburgh

July 01, 1999

No related content found.