Burns' 'prayer' answered at last

BBC News ^ | 25 January 2006 | BBC

[shezza]

A section from the manuscript which has been put together

A manuscript of a Robert Burns poem which had been ripped apart has been put back together in time for his birthday celebrations.

The two pages of manuscript for "Holy Willie's Prayer" were separated - for unknown reasons - in the 19th Century.

One half was stored in Burns' House in Dumfries, which bought the other part from a private collector late last year at a total cost of about £6,000.

They have been reunited in a new frame to be displayed at the house.

Alf Hannay, chairman of Dumfries and Galloway Burns Trust, said: "When you have a manuscript and the two pieces have been apart for so many years it is like bringing Burns back into Dumfries itself."

In the poem itself Burns attacks the hypocrisy of Willie Fisher - a drinking and womanising kirk elder from Mauchline in Ayrshire - who complained that Burns' friend Gavin Hamilton had breached God's law by having men working on the Sabbath.

[shezza]

And a Happy Burns Night to all ye haggis-eaters.

[Shanda]

I love some of Burns poems but others are almost impossible to understand.

Some of them set to music, (I don't know if it was Burns or others who did it), are really great.

[xp38]

Robert (Rabbie) Burns 1759 - 1796

[Erasmus]

"The best laid men gang aft a-gley."

[Ole Okie]

"The best laid men gang aft a-gley."

I understand that one, all right.

Even understood Burn's version: "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley" after my English lit text explained what "a-gley" means.

[FreedomFarmer]

I pray to become a Senator from Massachusetts,
and ride in fast boats, and marry rich women, and....

[yarddog]

One of my ancestors was Burn"s best friend although they had a falling out in their latter years.

[reagan_fanatic]

"Excellent."

[shezza]

The most famous, of course, is "Auld Lang Syne," the song which nobody knows, robustly sung every year by drunks the world over. ;o)

The tune first appeared in Playford's Original Scotch Tunes, 1700, although it had been known for many years prior. Many of Burns's poems were written to match this particular tune, which he called "a common Scots country dance."

As for the song itself, Burns wrote it in 1788, but it was probably based on a ballad which is attributed to Sir Robert Ayton (1570-1638) who accompanied James VI and I to England. Published in Choice Collection of Scots Poems, 1711, is the following:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never thought upon,
The flames of love extinguished,
And freely past and gone?
Is thy kind heart now grown so cold
In that loving breast of thine,
That thou canst never once reflect
On old-long-syne?

Burns claims he was inspired to write the song after hearing an old man singing something similar. So although two of the five verses are probably Burns originals, the other three are apparently based on earlier songs. (From The Burns Encyclopedia)

As an aside, for two years after "America the Beautiful" was written (1895) it was sung to just about any popular or folk tune that would fit with the lyrics. "Auld Lang Syne" was the most popular of these tunes. In 1926, the National Federation of Music Clubs had a contest to put the poem to music. Today it is sung to Samuel A. Ward’s composition "Materna." Can you imagine "America the Beautiful" sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne"?

[shezza]

LOL!

[shezza]

Can I get change for a button?

[yarddog]

One of my favorites.

SCOTS, what hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour; See the front o' battle lour; See approach proud Edward's power -- Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave? Wha can fill a coward's grave? Wha sae base as be a slave? Let him turn and flee!

Wha, for Scotland's King and Law, Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Free-man stand, or Free-man fa', Let him on wi' me!

By Oppression's woes and pains! By your sons in servile chains! We sill drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

Lay the proud Usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die!

[shezza]

Nice. My darling husband's claim to fame is that his great-great-great-great (etc.) grandfather and William Wallace were first-cousins (Sir Reginald Crawford), and he fought alongside Wallace for Scotland's freedom. A bit of a stretch, yes, but an honor nonetheless.

[yarddog]

One of my Mother's ancestors was there with them. She was a McDuffie.

He is said to have killed Sir Giles de Argentine at Bannockburn.