Robert Burns was a radical and
wrote a great deal about poverty, inequality and the injustice of rank. In a
not entirely cloaked manner he sympathised with the aims of the revolutionaries
in France and there can be little doubt that were he alive today MI5 would have
a thick file on him. He wrote about injustice and poverty not only because he
witnessed it everywhere on his travels but also because he knew poverty
himself.
But there are those of us who, though harbouring a desire for a fairer distribution of
material and financial resources and having a wish that everyone should enjoy equal social and political status, when touched by poverty are forced
to breach these principles. If it were only a matter of our own life or death
perhaps we might be steadfast but when people are in desperate need to feed, clothe
and shelter their kids it is not so easy
to be pure. The wealthy and powerful know this and operate by it. This is why
the rich generally get richer and the poor poorer. What is unbearable to the wealthy and powerful is the idea of real democracy.
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| Burns, the exciseman |
On a number of occasions Burns denied his
egalitarian ethic when poverty demanded and his wife and kids needed feeding.
On one such occasion He wrote a begging letter in verse to Robert Graham of
Fintry, Esq asking the latter to use his
influence to find him a government post
with the excise office. Graham (a descendant of
John Graham of Claverhouse, “Bonnie Dundee”), refused to help Burns not on account of his poverty but on the basis that he would not help a man who was
of a republican mind. Burns fearing prosecution denied his radicalism even
though he had been vociferous in his support of events in France.
But when needs insisted, and in fairness to Burns when he heard news that the
revolution in France had become a bloodbath, his fiery zeal for revolution was dampened.
A year or so after his letter to Graham, Burns with the help of other connections, was appointed exciseman for the Dumfries division where he lived.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Graham family sold its lands in Scotland and took the high road to London.
Whatever is thought of a man’s actions it is difficult to deny the justice of the ideals which underpinned and were expressed in much of Burns’s
poetry. That’s where I stand on Burns.
Here follows a well kent and stirring example of
Burns aspiration for all humankind :
A Man’s a Man for
a’ that
Is there for
honesty poverty
That hings his
head, an' a' that;
The coward slave -
we pass him by,
We dare be poor
for a' that!
For a' that, an'
a' that,
Our toils obscure
an' a' that,
The rank is but
the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd
for a' that.
What though on
hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey,
an' a' that?
Gie fools their
silks, and knaves their wine,
A man's a man for
a' that.
For a' that, an'
a' that,
Their tinsel show,
an' a' that,
The honest man, tho'
e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for
a' that.
Ye see yon birkie
ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an'
stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds
worship at his word,
He's but a coof
for a' that.
For a' that, an'
a' that,
His ribband, star,
an' a' that,
The man o' independent
mind
He looks an'
laughs at a' that.
A prince can mak a
belted knight,
A marquise, duke,
an' a' that;
But an honest
man's aboon his might,
Gude faith, he
maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an'
a' that,
Their dignities
an' a' that,
The pith o' sense,
an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank
than a' that.
Then let us pray
that come it may,
(As come it will
for a' that,)
That Sense and
Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the
gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an'
a' that,
It's comin yet for
a' that
That man to man,
the world o'er,
Shall brithers be
for a' that.
