Best Laid Schemes

Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-691-14294-4
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 539 g

There are more statues of Robert Burns in the United States than there are of any American poet. Scotland's favorite poet has been loved by generations of Americans--from Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman to Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and Bob Dylan. Now this book makes Burns's greatest poetry more accessible to American readers than ever before. This is the only comprehensive selection of his work that has discreet line-by-line marginal glossing of the Scots, archaic, and obscure words, allowing readers to understand and enjoy the poems without constantly having to turn to footnotes or a glossary. Newly edited from manuscripts and early printed texts, this definitive, wide-ranging collection also introduces some recently discovered verses--and it is the only edition to present a substantial selection of Burns's important prose writings, including letters and key statements about his art. Edited and annotated by acclaimed Burns biographer Robert Crawford and textual expert Christopher MacLachlan, the book also includes a substantial introduction that puts the poet in biographical, historical, and cultural context. The Best Laid Schemes demonstrates like no other collection why Burns is considered one of the world's greatest poets of love and democracy--and why he continues to entertain, move, and intrigue readers two and a half centuries after his birth.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Burns, Robert

Crawford, Robert

MacLachlan, Christopher

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements ix

Textual Note xi

Introduction xiii

Further Reading xxxvii

POEMS

My Father was a Farmer 3

To Ruin. 5

The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie, The Author's Only Pet Yowe, An Unco Mournfu' Tale 6

Poor Mailie's Elegy. 9

Mary Morison 11

On a Noisy Polemic. 12

For the Author's Father. 12

A Fragment. [When Guilford Good our Pilot Stood] 13

Address to the Unco Guid, or the Rigidly Righteous. 16

O Leave Novels 19

Green Grow the Rashes. A Fragment. 20

Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet. 21

Holy Willie's Prayer 26

Death and Doctor Hornbook. A True Story. 30

Epistle to J. L[aprai]k, An Old Scotch Bard. 36

The Vision. 40

To a Mouse 47

The Holy Fair. 49

The Twa Dogs, A Tale. 57

The Cotter's Saturday Night. 65

Address to the Deil. 71

Brose and Butter. 75

To a Louse 76

A Cantata. [Love and Liberty or The Jolly Beggars] 78

On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies. 89

To the Author. [Second Epistle to Davie] 91

[Lines Written on a Bank of Scotland One Guinea Note] 93

[Address of Beelzebub] 94

A Dream. 97

The Brigs of Ayr. A Poem. 102

The Northern Lass. 110

Address to Edinburgh. 111

To a Haggis. 113

A Fragment. [There was a Lad] 115

[Inscribed around Fergusson's Portrait] 116

[Lines on Fergusson] 116

Written by Somebody on the Window of an Inn at Stirling

on Seeing the Royal Palace in Ruins. 117

Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes [First Version] 118

I Love My Jean. 120

O, Were I on Parnassus Hill 121

Tam Glen. 122

Auld Lang Syne. 124

Louis What Reck I by Thee. 125

Robin Shure in Hairst. 126

Nine Inch Will Please a Lady. 127

Afton Water. 128

[Epistle to Dr Blacklock] 129

On Captn. Grose's present peregrinations through Scotland collecting the antiquities of that kingdom 131

My Love She's but a Lassie Yet. 133

My Heart's in the Highlands. 134

John Anderson my Jo. 135

Tam o' Shanter. A Tale. 136

The Banks o' Doon. 143

Ae Fond Kiss. 144

Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation. 145

The De'il's Awa wi' th' Exciseman. 146

Highland Mary 147

The Rights of Woman 148

Why Should Na Poor People Mow 150

Whistle & I'll Come to You My Lad. 151

Ode [for General Washington's Birthday] 152

Bruce to his Troops on the Eve of the Battle of Bannock-burn. 154

Act Sederunt o' the Court o' Session. 155

A Red Red Rose. 156

Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes [Second Version] 157

For a' that & a' that. 158

The Dumfries Volunteers. 160

The Heron Ballads I 162

To the Tooth-Ach. 164

[Oh Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast] 166

The Solemn League and Covenant 167

The Selkirk Grace. 167

Tam Lin. 168

Comin thro' the Rye. 174

Charlie He's my Darling. 175

The Trogger. 176

The Tree of Liberty. 177

REDISCOVERED POEMS

The Rediscovered Poems in this Book 183

Logie o' Buchan 187

I Courted a Lassie 188

My Steps Fate on a Mad Conjuncture Thrust 189

Here is to the king, Sir 191

Tho' Life's Gay Scenes Delight No More 192

PROSE

Five Extracts from Burns's First Commonplace Book, 1783-85 195

Preface [To Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1786] 198

Dedication [To Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787] 200

Extract from Burns's Journal of his Border Tour 201

Letter to Dr John Moore, 2 August 1787 202

Letter to Agnes McLehose, 19 January 1788 213

Letter to Agnes McLehose, 25 January 1788 215

Letter to Robert Ainslie, 3 March 1788 216

Extract from a Letter to Burns from Agnes McLehose 217

Letter to Dr John Moore, 4 January 1789 219

Extract from a Letter to Mrs Frances Dunlop of Dunlop, 12 January 1795 221

Letter to James Armour, 10 July 1796 222

Notes 223

Index of Titles 265

Index of First Lines of Poems 269

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Crawford is professor of modern Scottish literature at the University of St. Andrews. His many books include "The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography" (Princeton). Christopher MacLachlan is senior lecturer in English at St. Andrews and the editor of "Before Burns: Eighteenth-Century Scottish Poetry".