Robert Burns

A poet's account of his own family opens William Allan Neilson's study of Robert Burns. The biography begins in Alloway, where Burns's father combined gardening with the struggle to support a growing household, then follows the family through the farms of Mount Oliphant and Lochlea. Winter lessons and conversations during farm work give the opening a close view of the education behind Burns's writing. Passages from his letters and poems place his own voice alongside Neilson's account.

The book also examines Burns's language, Scottish songs, satires, epistles, and narrative verse. Its discussion of song weighs uneven work against lyrics whose everyday diction carries strong feeling and sly humor. Printed songs retain their Scots wording, with brief glosses to help readers follow unfamiliar terms. Readers looking for a way into Burns can move between the circumstances of his life, examples of his poetry, and an argument about what makes his song writing distinctive.