A Scotsman's appreciation of his country's bard... Via Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Robert Burns - A Fanfare for the Common Man by Bert Wright above.
Despite his enormous popularity, Robert Burns, Scotland's "Immortal Bard" whose birthday we celebrate/d on January 25th, remains a problematic figure. On a composite assessment considering productivity, range, artistic achievement and affection, few writers can match him. Indeed, more than two centuries after his death, Burns’s work has reached such a level of familiarity that many of his lines -- like those of Shakespeare, Yeats and Heaney -- have entered the language. 'The best-laid plans of mice and men; tae see oorsels as ithers see us; a man’s a man for a’ that...' the list goes on.
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
