Burns Under Assault!

BURNS UNDER ASSAULT

By Stephen Wilson

 

When it is someone's birthday you try to

make it as pleasant as possible for him

or her by offering greetings, cards ,

presents and best wishes. You certainly

don't insult, deride or denigrate a person

on his birthday. This is especially true if

he died over 200 years ago and it is the

centenary of his birthday on the 25th of

January ! For during this time and into

February , many Russians and Scots all

over the World honor the poet Robert Burns

by organizing traditional Burns Suppers in

his memory. At those gatherings, people

gather to hear his most popular poems

recited such as : 'Honest Poverty', 'Ye

Jacobites by name' and 'Toast to the

Haggis' where a haggis is carried in a

plate before a piper then the poem recited

and the haggis stabbed ! Guests gorge

themselves on portions of this dish and

drink glasses of whisky as well as dawn

kilts. The stiff, formal and respectable

atmosphere surrounding those well-dressed

and affluent guests often seems at odds

with a poet who struggled as a farmer in

back -breaking poverty ' and recited sharply

radical poems attacking money as 'a cursed

leaf ' where the poet declared :

'I see the children of affliction,

unaided by your cursed restriction

I see the oppressor's cruel smile,

Among his hapless victim' spoil' .

Burns appears to be popular in Russia

where suppers are organised in his honor.

The Caledonian Clubs, Saint Andrew's

society and many schools mark the

occasion. A parent of one of my students

even told me : "I'm going to a Robert Burns

Supper tonight. I have been to 5 such

events ! Burns popular here because he

was well translated into Russian."

Unfortunately, just a week ago , the

Guardian, and other British newspapers

started to savage the poet's reputation for

his alleged debauchery , drinking and

alleged abuse of women. Burns being

conveniently dead, could not respond to

those allegations or take those critics to

court for libel.

The articles attacking him are reminsicent

of a tabloid newspaper. I mean it is not

some article you would have expected in

the guardian ! For example,

one article declares : Was the Beloved poet

a Weinsteinian sex pest ?' One critic,

Stuart Kelly writes : 'Burns is a rascal, a bit

roguish, roister - doisterer . But here is

another r word - rapist .'The poet Liz

Lochead also joined the attack quoting a

letter of 1788, to a friend , where he

boasted about giving his pregnant girlfriend

Jean Armour, a 'thundering scalade ' where

she later responded with joy'. For Lochead,

this boast seems like a rape ! Some critics

go further and ask ; 'Why do we all raise a

glass to the boor bard of Scotland?'

Well maybe because he is such a great

poet with a real soul!

However, some sober academics think

those claims are not only over the top but

impossible to prove. Catherine Czeikawka

a Burns expert states : 'To label events

described in the letter as rape is to

oversimplify a relationship of great

complexity'.

The Russians I spoke to are perplexed and

astonished that people from 'the Me too'

campaign have decided to attack someone

who died over 200 years ago. Burns had a

daunting and difficult life. Why not let him

rest in peace ?

If you read the poems of Burns you will find

a rare and warm sensibility to women

which was seldom shared by other poets.

The poems indicate someone who highly

respected woman and worried about their

plight and felt immense guilt at not aiding

them enough. Burns might not have been

a saint or angel but he was no monster !

Those attacks on the poet are not new.

The first biography of Burns attacked

Burns for his alleged debauchery , drinking

and class hatred of the better off. If you buy

Robert Burns Selected Poems , in Penguin

books, in Moscow , you can read in the

foreword : 'His overwhelming popularity

was revealed strongly in the adulation

shown by his fellow countrymen , but

MacKenzie was also to praise him as 'a

Heaven taught ploughman '. Unfortunately,

this great acclaim went to Burns 's head

and he led a life of dissipation and

debauchery. '

The best answer to all those slurs is

the biography written by the German Hans

Hecht who wrote 'Robert Burns , the Man

and His work ' 1950 , William Hodge and

company , Limited . In this excellent

biography, Hecht mentions how Burns

helped reinstate the unfairly dismissed

school teacher James Clarke. Second

City Teacher published an article about

how Burn's defended teachers {See article

April 12, 2014 Burns Defends Teachers}.

The comparison to Hollywood producer

Harvey Weinstein is plain absurd. Whereas

Weinstein blacklisted promising actresses,

Burns was an implacable opponent of

blacklisting and abusing people of any

kind. And women were no exception!

Burns, by the way, is a highly under-

estimated poet where they don't even

teach him in Scottish and English schools.

Yet they teach him in Russian schools.

Burns appears to have found some sort of

refuge in Russia.