Walt Whitman's "Robert Burns as Poet and Person"

[Bugbear]

I posted this link over in the bonnet removal thread, but removed it because it is "off" that topic.
Here's the link to Walt Whitman's prose piece, "Robert Burns as Poet and Person," over at bartleby.com:
http://www.bartleby.com/229/5007.html

So, "America's poet" did read Burns, and had a lot of favorable things to say about him. I even think it could be said Burns influenced and possibly inspired Whitman.

Andrew Carnegie also liked the poetry of Whitman according to several of my literary books on Whitman.
More Scottish influence on the U.S. ...

[Irish Jack O'Brian]

Thankee kindly for re-posting this link. Excellent stuff. Were I called upon to deliver The Immortal Memory Toast at a Burns Night Supper, this is where I would look for material.

Regards

[macwilkin]

I posted this link over in the bonnet removal thread, but removed it because it is "off" that topic.
Here's the link to Walt Whitman's prose piece, "Robert Burns as Poet and Person," over at bartleby.com:
http://www.bartleby.com/229/5007.html

So, "America's poet" did read Burns, and had a lot of favorable things to say about him. I even think it could be said Burns influenced and possibly inspired Whitman.

Andrew Carnegie also liked the poetry of Whitman according to several of my literary books on Whitman.
More Scottish influence on the U.S. ...

Whitman's contemporary, and author of my wife's people's epic, Evangeline, also wrote a tribute to Burns in verse:

http://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=265

I particularly like the last two verses, which I have used when I have served as MC at our local Burns Supper, to introduce the evening.

Great find, Ted! I have a copy of the NY Caledonian Club's 1859 Burns Night proceedings filled with similar material, including a letter from President James Buchanan, himself of Scots heritage -- and my first cousin 5 times removed! Of course, coming from a good Iowa Republican family, we always tended not to discuss our "Doughface" Democrat cousin!

T.

[Bugbear]

It's my understanding Abraham Lincoln was a devotee of Burns's poetry. I think there is a book on that subject, but I don't have it.

I do have a book on Lincoln and Whitman, though.

[macwilkin]

It's my understanding Abraham Lincoln was a devotee of Burns's poetry. I think there is a book on that subject, but I don't have it.

I do have a book on Lincoln and Whitman, though.

http://www.civilwarnews.com/reviews/...sz_b010913.htm

I highly recommend it! Sadly, Prof. Szasz passed away earlier this year. He was also the author of Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917 from University of Oklahoma Press.

T.

[Bugbear]

Yes, thanks, that's the book. I will put it on my list.