Customer Reviews

Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

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This is the best volume you'll find of the poetry of the great Bobby Burns (1759-1796). What's so great about this guy is that his poetry is never really sad or whiny like, well just about everybody else, but his poetry is really happy and merry; just a song you sing while drinking scotch. Another thing is that Burns is just the voice of Scotland. His poems in the Scottish dialect are nothing short of delightful like one of my favorites of his, A Red, Red Rose
Oh my luve is like a red, red rose ,
That's newly sprung in June
Oh my luve is like a melodie
That's sweetly played in tune
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare thee weel awile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile!

Sure, most Robert Burns poems are on the `Net. Sure, we can look them up, print them out, and then recycle them. But what if you are at home, with no computer on, or in the park, or in a bus or train or plane? This is a smooth, slim, handsome volume, with a purple picture of a thistle on the cover and a ribbon placeholder inside. This is a book of poems for the ages--familiar, resonant, humorous, and ready.

Robert Burns was and still is the greatest Scottish poet to ever live. This book takes you deep inside the mind of the Scots and makes you feel like one yourself. A perfect selection of literature, it is sure to be among your favorite bedside books. Buy it!!!

Burns is a legendary lyric poet whose Scots verses inspired Wordsworth and Coleridge. A number of his poems and songs, "Auld Lang Syne" " To a Mousie" "Tam O'Shanter" " A man's a man for a that" are among the most well- known in the language.
Burns bright star burned briefly, and his life was filled with passionate and romantic loves about which he wrote some of his greatest poems. " My love is like a red red rose" is perhaps the most well-known of these.
In brief lines he expressed a great range of feeling, from satirical to humorous to tender and loving.
Here are the concluding verses of one of his signature poems, "To a Mousie"
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o mice an men
Gang aft agley,
An lea'e us nought but grief an pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An forward, tho I canna see,
I guess an fear!

While this edition includes the poems Burns is most well- known for it does not include the glossary or dictionary which would help most readers understand Burns' Scots terms. Any future edition of the poems would be improved by such a glossary.