罗伯特·伯恩斯传记

诗人的传记

伯恩斯有时被称为“农夫诗人”，他是一个贫困农民的长子。尽管他的父亲搬到了伯恩斯出生的地方艾尔郡，试图改善他的财富，但他最终还是破产了——他先是接手了一个农场，然后又搬到了另一个农场，但没有成功——1784年。罗伯特从六岁起就开始上学，并在家里接受老师的教育，到十五岁时，他已经成为农场的主要工人。他还掌握了法语和拉丁语的阅读知识，读过莎士比亚、德莱顿、弥尔顿和《圣经》。父亲去世后，他和哥哥继续一起务农，现在在莫西吉尔工作。彭斯早年生活的贫困，虽然远未克服，却使他成为法国大革命的支持者，反对加尔文主义和他那个时代的社会秩序。他的叛逆天性很快就表现在他的行为上。伯恩斯的第一个私生子是伊丽莎白·帕顿在1785年生的。后来又生了两对双胞胎，还和让·阿莫尔发生了各种暧昧关系，后来他娶了她。也正是在这一时期，伯恩斯第一次取得了文学上的成功。 Though he had thought of emigration to Jamaica as a possible way to avoid his mounting problems, he published his Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect on July 31 1786 at Kilmarnock. This volume contained, among others, 'The Cotter's Saturday Night', 'To a Mouse', 'To a Mountain Daisy' and 'The Holy Fair', all of which were written at Mossigiel. The volume brought him immediate success. After 1787 Burns, married in 1788 and having moved to Ellisland with his bride, worked chiefly for James Johnson, whom he met in Edinburgh, and, later, for George Thomson. It was for these men that Burns compiled and added to the two great compilations of Scottish songs: Thomson's Scott's Musical Museum and Johnson's Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice. Alongside this work, which Burns did on an unpaid basis, he also worked, from 1791 onward, as an Excise Officer. This allowed him to give up farming and move to the Dumfries. He died from rheumatic fever just five years later, having also published, again in 1791, his last major work, a narrative poem entitled 'Tom O'Shanter'.