Influence Upon Robert Burns
She is widely known to have entertained her young “Rabbie” with legends from local oral traditions, and folk songs. The biographer Hecht relates that "her sweet singing was heard as she went about the heavy work of the day, for she had a good voice and a wonderful stock of old and new ballads and songs, such as were current amongst the people. ... In the art of story-telling she had a rival in an old linswoman, Betty Davidson, who was frequently a guest in the little household at Alloway."
Agnes is credited with having a significant influence upon Burns' love for song. A relative, Betty Davidson, was a greater influence, These twin influences resulted in him writing or revising close on three hundred and fifty songs throughout his life. Most of these songs were published, without fee, in the "Scots Musical Museum" compiled by James Johnson and the "Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs" published by George Thomson.
The following bawdy song is said to have been her favourite ballad and also that of her son:
|
Read more about this topic: Agnes Broun
Famous quotes containing the words robert burns, influence, robert and/or burns:
“O thou that in the heavens does dwell!
Wha, as it pleases best thysel’,
Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell,
A’ for thy glory!
And no for ony gude or ill
They’ve done before thee.—”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men; they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties.”
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)
“Both the man of science and the man of art live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it. Both, as a measure of their creation, have always had to do with the harmonization of what is new with what is familiar, with the balance between novelty and synthesis, with the struggle to make partial order in total chaos.... This cannot be an easy life.”
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)
“O My Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
O My Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)