A Bit o' Burns

On this day was born a young Scot, who was later to say to his wife, at the age of 36, ‘Don’t worry, Jean, I’ll be better kenned a hundred years from now.’ How wrong he was. The name of Robert Burns has gone round the world for two hundred and fifty years.

This poet of the heart, in his uncompromising native Scots, still manages to touch people of every tongue, because the kind of message he has sent out of love for all, and all for love, is something that doesn’t need words to transmit itself, but if they are needed, how well he provides them.

Meantime, let’s remember what he did say:

‘Nae treasures nor pleasures

Can mak us happy lang.

The heart’s ay the part ay

That maks you richt or wrang.’