Book/Printed Material When I Sleep &c.
About this Item
Title
- When I Sleep &c.
Summary
- Robert Burns (1759-96) is best known for his poems and songs that reflect Scotland's cultural heritage. He was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland, the first of seven children belonging to William Burnes, a tenant farmer, and his wife Agnes Broun. Burns had little formal education, but he read English literature and absorbed the traditional, largely oral Scots-language folk songs and tales of his rural environment. He began to compose songs in 1774, and published his first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in 1786. The work was a critical success, and its poems in both Scots and English, on a range of topics, established Burns's broad appeal. While building his literary reputation, Burns worked as a farmer, and in 1788 he was appointed an excise officer in Ellisland. He spent the final 12 years of his life collecting and editing traditional Scottish folk songs for collections including The Scots Musical Museum and A Select Collection of Original Scotish [sic] Airs for the Voice. Burns contributed hundreds of Scottish songs to these anthologies, sometimes rewriting traditional lyrics and setting them to new or revised music. This manuscript presents two alternative drafts for the third stanza of Burns's song "Ay Waukin," or "Simmer's a Pleasant Time." The first draft contains a line that is unique to any other manuscripts of the song that have been found so far.
Names
- Burns, Robert, 1759-1796 Author.
Created / Published
- [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1790.
Headings
- - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland--Scotland
- - 1700 to 1790
- - Dialect Poetry, Scottish
- - Folk songs
Notes
- - Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
- - Original resource extent: 1 leaf ; 22 x 17.8 centimeters.
- - Original resource at: University of South Carolina.
- - Content in Scots.
- - Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
Medium
- 1 online resource.
Source Collection
- Robert Burns Collection
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2021667614
Online Format
- compressed data
- image