Burns night

[Panache]

When I read, I only read horror...

Again, sometimes the effort is well worth it.

Stephen King and his contemporaries are pretty good, but why not try something a little more challenging and read some H.P. Lovecraft? Not an easy read by today's standards but there are shivers to be had in his tales that are worth the effort.

Cheers

Jamie

[thescot]

I am just not a very cultural person. I rather watch sports, action movies, video games, and play sports. When I read, I only read horror, action and true crime. Poetry isn't my cup of tea.

Pity.

I go the Burns suppers--in fact have hosted one for the past four years--because I love the entire event. I originally attended to be with friends in my clan society and because I had a passing interest in Burns.

But as I listened and learned and then studied and researched, I became quite an admirer and ardent fan. I have found in Burns a depth of feeling and perception--not to mention his other pursuits and contributions--that translate well through the centuries.

Burns was a good man and complex. He was sometimes a romantic and sometimes a realist, a lover and perhaps a lecher. In fact, he was pretty much like all men: a mix of admirable, less than admirable, and undesireable. but I am quite certain that the good parts outweighed the bad.

Raphael, I sincerely hope that you can somehow find your way to tackle the more demanding pursuits of literature. The effort will be worth it if you do, and you will find it much more satisfying and lasting than sports and video games. I say this at the risk of sounding pedagogic or condescending; it is not intended to be that. I only wish to share the small bit of wisdom that I have paid for with dear coinage. In youth we learn; in age we understand.

I attend Burns Suppers in order to celebrate and share a love of Burns, hoping that those present will catch at least a small whiff of the aroma of his genius and contributions to the human race. He really was one of those who burned twice as brightly but only for a short time.

Dare I suggest that if you don't like Burns it's because you don't know him?

. . . O whither, O whither shall I turn!
All friendless, forsaken, forlorn!
For, in this world, Rest or Peace
I never more shall know!
And it's O, fickle Fortune, O!

[McMurdo]

I go to and heck even organize a Burns Supper because of the richness of his work. Burns to me speaks to the best of mankind. Certainly there are poems that are Bawdy but really that is simply part of the human experience, there are however other poems that stir the soul, and really touch the very essence of humanity. A few years ago I went to a Burns Night where my father was giving the Immortal Memory, in it he closed with the following

"I urge you each and everyone in this room to read Burns and before next Burns Night to learn at least one poem, I promise you will be richer for it."

That was the year I learned Tam O'Shanter, while I will not say you should learn Tam, I urge each and every one of you to read Burns and to learn one poem, it will make youe next Burns Night that much more enjoyable.

[Kilted Fireman]

I have seen many of you have attended Burns night Supper in the recent weeks and I wonder what does that mean to you. Is this just a social event for you or are you doing it to celebrate the poet's life and his influence on Scotland.

I am not going to lie and say that I go to the annual supper because of Burns. I go to the dinner because it is an annual social event and it is also a fund raiser. Although I doubt that I will continue my involvement in the future years as I no longer believe in that fund raiser any more. I also don't read poetry because I don't understand them.

Good excuse as any to drink scotch.

[Raphael]

Pity.

I go the Burns suppers--in fact have hosted one for the past four years--because I love the entire event. I originally attended to be with friends in my clan society and because I had a passing interest in Burns.

But as I listened and learned and then studied and researched, I became quite an admirer and ardent fan. I have found in Burns a depth of feeling and perception--not to mention his other pursuits and contributions--that translate well through the centuries.

Burns was a good man and complex. He was sometimes a romantic and sometimes a realist, a lover and perhaps a lecher. In fact, he was pretty much like all men: a mix of admirable, less than admirable, and undesireable. but I am quite certain that the good parts outweighed the bad.

Raphael, I sincerely hope that you can somehow find your way to tackle the more demanding pursuits of literature. The effort will be worth it if you do, and you will find it much more satisfying and lasting than sports and video games. I say this at the risk of sounding pedagogic or condescending; it is not intended to be that. I only wish to share the small bit of wisdom that I have paid for with dear coinage. In youth we learn; in age we understand.

I attend Burns Suppers in order to celebrate and share a love of Burns, hoping that those present will catch at least a small whiff of the aroma of his genius and contributions to the human race. He really was one of those who burned twice as brightly but only for a short time.

Dare I suggest that if you don't like Burns it's because you don't know him?

. . . O whither, O whither shall I turn!
All friendless, forsaken, forlorn!
For, in this world, Rest or Peace
I never more shall know!
And it's O, fickle Fortune, O!

You are right. I don't know Burns, but I have to admit that I want to learn about this man and his word. He has captured many people's heart and I definitely would like to know more about his magic.

However, I don't think this is the right time for me. Perhaps in the future. I have my reason to delay it.

[Panache]

Raphael,

If you watched any of the videos of the Nor Cal Rabble's Burns Night Supper this year you will see how we in our own madcap way try to bring Robert Burns and his works to our attendees. We are silly, we laugh out loud a lot, and we have fun! Yet we are trying our best in our own way to bring the man's works to life to a modern reader.

Burns Night Suppers can be dull, dry, and stogy affairs but they don't have to be.

Burns' recitations can be dull, dry, stogy readings but they don't have to be.

Didn't last year you post a rap version of the "Address to the Haggis"?

That was absolutely brilliant! Someone put some thought to bringing this 200+ old poem to a young modern audience and made those words live.

Shakespearean theater has the same challenge, to bring understanding and life to a language that the audience might not understand.

Burns' works are really quite wonderful and worth the effort to learn and share.

Cheers

Jamie :ootd:


PS: Sorry Raphael, I was writing as you were and didn't see your post above! Rest assured, Burns' works will still be there when you are ready for them.

[Raphael]

Raphael,


Burns Night Suppers can be dull, dry, and stogy affairs but they don't have to be.

Burns' recitations can be dull, dry, stogy readings but they don't have to be.

Didn't last year you post a rap version of the "Address to the Haggis"?


Shakespearean theater has the same challenge, to bring understanding and life to a language that the audience might not understand.

May be I need to attend a proper Burns Supper. I don't mind dry, as long as it is a learning and meaningful evening.

When it comes down to Shakespearean Theatre, I love it. I love Hamlet. I use to obsess with the play and would go to see all the productions in town.

[OC Richard]

As a working piper, a Burns night is a night of work and getting paid. Cynical as it sounds, I'd wager that that's the feeling of many pipers.

It's usually a night of sitting around waiting to play, having to squirm in my seat listening to people struggle through botched attempts at reading his poetry by people who can't pronounce and don't understand the dialect. The worst are the people who try to do a fake Scottish accent.

But how different one of the two dinners I played at this year was!

A guy got up and gave a wonderful, clear, consise, and entertaining account of Burns' life.

Then a old Scottish man whose normal way of talking is very close to Burns' dialect read one of Burns' poems. This was great to get the true "sound" of the poetry but nobody could understand much of it.

I wondered what the best approach was for reading Burns' Lowland dialect stuff 1) having it read by someone who actually speaks that dialect to get the sound but lose the meaning or 2) translate it into Standard English and lose the sound but get the meaning or 3) stick to stuff that Burns wrote in Standard English.

Then... another reader got up, and did possibly the best reading of Burns I'd ever heard. This was a guy who had been born and raised in Scotland but had come to the USA as a young man and had lived here the rest of his life. Though he conversed in an American accent he was able to read in a genuine Scottish accent, and do it in a way that the meaning of the poem was quite clear to an American audience.

Then the next night was another Burns' night of horrid readings...ughhh...rather than sit around listening to it I got out my smallpipes and wandered around playing soft background music.

In any case, after hearing a number of Burns' poems I got the sense that here was a man who experienced life somehow more fully, more completely than most people, who observed and pondered and felt and was able to capture it in verse. I once read "art is the recording of human experience, and the more profound the experience and the more clear the recording of it, the better the art". This puts its finger directly on what makes Burns great.

A dissenting voice is from a Gaelic scholar I know who despises Burns, saying that he was responsible for the destruction of a significant corpus of genuine Scots and Gaelic music and song.

[gordontaos]

My wife and I have hosted one formal Burns night, attended one, and I have been the moderator at an additional two. I have done the "Address to a Haggis" in Shakesperean style, cried during my "Toast to the Lassies", and had others get up to recite some of Burns' works during my version of the "Immortal Memory".
I celebrate Burns night to honor the man, his talent, his love of freedom, his ability to snub the upper classes without them realizing it, and finally, as a tribute to Scots heritage.
When Burns wrote in a thick dialect he did so on purpose, and a very unique form of language has survived today because of his efforts. He could also write in plain english, and did so based upon the audience that he was attempting to reach.
A perfect example of Burns showing his love of liberty, command of proper english, and smacking the face of those in power is his "Ode for General Washington's Birthday". To write such thoughts so soon after the American Revolution, and during the distressing (for royalty), time of the French Revolution, might have earned him some jail time.
Likewise, "Address to Haggis" made great fun of the wealthy patrons who were supporting him, and their dining habits. It is an homage to the common man, and is written in a heavy dialect.
"Scots Wha Hae" is another of those fiercly nationalistic and warlike poems that certainly was not welcomed by authority. Remember, when Burns wrote this poem the Highland Dress Proscription Act of 1746 had been repealed for less than ten years.
I live in a town of 6,000 souls in what is perhaps the oldest continually inhabited area of North America. The Taos Pueblo Indians are still living in their 700+ year old apartment houses. The Spanish settled this valley before the Pilgrims arrived, and the first people of Scots ancestry did not arrive until 1821. Despite that, we had over 60 people at our event on the 23rd, from every culture and socio economic group in the valley. To my knowledge it was the only Burns Night in New Mexico.
Everyone who came, came for their own personal reason. It may have been to wear their kilt, hear the Pipers, enjoy some good food, listen to some poetry, hobnob with a few people of social import, or they had heard how it was great fun last year. One reason is as good as any other. It does not matter WHY people come, just as long as they come. Also, its REALLY important to have fun at a Burns Night, after all, if you understand the man, you begin to appreciate his love of life.
I believe that it was John Stuart Blackie, Scottish scholar and patriot, who said, "When Scotland forgets Burns, then history will forget Scotland".

[McClef]

while I will not say you should learn Tam, I urge each and every one of you to read Burns and to learn one poem, it will make youe next Burns Night that much more enjoyable.

It also means that when you visit Dumfries and sit in Rabbie's chair in the Globe you won't have to buy everyone in the pub a drink!