This year, Robert Burns’ 250th birthday celebration is the best yet. Around the world, many raise their glasses and toast a great poet and songwriter. Burns wrote hundreds of enduring poems and songs about Scottish life and beyond, including “Address to a Haggis” (1786), “The Highland Lassie” (1786), “Auld Lang Syne” (1788), “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton” (1789), “My love is like a red, red rose” (1794) and “Tam O’Shanter” (1790). It is still hailed as the world’s most celebrated poem as of 2009.
An acrostic poem uses the letters of a word to begin each line of the poem. Thereafter, all lines of the poem relate to or describe the title of the poem. The poem is written with the words formed vertically on the page on the left side. One letter is used for each line. The words do not have to rhyme. Adjectives, verbs, and other phrases can be used to describe the subject. The following is a contribution to Robert Burns in the form of an acrostic poem:
Contributed by Robert Burns-An Acrostic Poem
R.Robert Burns, born 25 January 1759 in Alloway, Scotland, near Ayr, poet and composer of loving love lyrics.
EITHERhis older brother Gilbert rented a farm near Mauchline in 17984 after their father’s death, Burns had to support himself
B.urnas passionately and freely loved loving ladies, and had 8 children out of 5 different like little elves
myoptionally, he wrote poetry extensively while working on agriculture to earn money to support his children and pay the support he made
R.obbie married Jean Armor in 1788, mother of his son(s), lover of ladies, did not renounce and admitted
youam O’Shanter” published in a volume of “Antiquities of Scotland” an illustration of Alloway Kirk as his works
B.Urns wrote 114 songs for George Thomson’s “A Select Collection of Scottish Airs,” received little pay, he says
youPut love to the French Revolution wrote “For a’ that and a’ that”, his cry for human equality and the search for equity.
R.heumatic fever took his life, 21 July 1796, buried in St. Michael’s churchyard in Dumfries, many wept
NOow, “My Love is Like a Red, Red, Rose,” the ladies loved to sing and quote as one of Burns’ favorite toasts
Saw fame after his death when many of his songs and poems have become international favorites and aspirations
