Robert Burns’ “A man’s a man for a’ that” as a Poetic Illustration of his Revolutionary Political Beliefs

Agnetha Hinz

Jul 2015 · GRIN Verlag

About this ebook

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: 18th- and 19th-Century Scottish Poetry, language: English, abstract: Today Robert Burns is known as one of the greatest and most widely renowned writers of Scotland. Besides Burns’ humble parentage and the religious views that affected his life and creations, his social and political environment was also strongly influential to the author’s later works and his identity. Hence, the following is aimed at illustrating how the poet gives utterance to his political beliefs by using the example of his song “A man’s a man for a’ that” published in 1795. For this, the historical circumstances in Scotland at times of Robert Burns will be reflected at first, followed by a content-related analysis of the song which shall finally shed light on the personal positioning Burns adopts in this work towards the subversive conditions of his time.