"Fair Fa' Your Honest Sonsie Face" 
By Colin S.L. Mackie
Had Robbie Burns written in English there is no doubt that he would be revered as possibly the World’s most significant poet. His work is full of compassion, understanding and a wisdom that belied his youth. His insightfulness when felling a daisy in the field, inadvertently destroying a mouse’s nest or spotting a head louse on a fellow parishioner’s head while in church has never been paralleled.
His poems and songs of love, returned and unrequited, are amongst the most beautiful ever written. His dalliances with the ladies are legendary and would put even the most notorious modern day sex symbols to shame. He has often been maligned as a gigolo but a real gigolo would never fall in love; and Robbie always loved his ladies.
He too was a strong Scottish patriot as many of his works uncover. It was not a popular attitude to have so soon after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie but Robbie helped with his writing to romanticise the Young Pretenders ill-planned challenge to his arguable heritage.
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Burns Cottage |
Undoubtedly, Robbie Burns was one of the greatest literary geniuses to have lived and those who can understand the Doric, in which most of his work was written, are amongst the most privileged. It is one more of many reasons to be proud of the heritage that
Show your pride subtly. Let those who matter know that you are proud of your heritage without belittling or embarrassing others. Ensure that your children are educated to the contributions that such a small and oppressed nation has bestowed upon the world at large.
Colin S.L. Mackie
ClanTime
