Place Name
Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was the famed Scottish poet whose works include Auld Lang Syne, traditionally sung to mark the start of the New Year. He is variously known as Rabbie Burns, the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet. The Poetry Foundation writes: ‘His poetry recorded and celebrated aspects of farm life, regional experience, traditional culture, class culture and distinctions, and religious practice. He is considered the national poet of Scotland.’ Born in Alloway, South Ayrshire, to William and Agnes Brown Burnes, he initially followed his father and became a tenant farmer but became an excise collector in Dumfries. Throughout all this time he wrote poetry in the Scottish vernacular. His work was already being feted in his lifetime following a long tradition of Scottish poets: ‘Burns is often seen as the end of that literary line both because his brilliance and achievement could not be equaled and, more particularly, because the Scots vernacular in which he wrote some of his celebrated works was — even as he used it — becoming less and less intelligible to the majority of readers, who were already well-versed with English culture and language.’ Among his best known works are the narrative poem Tam O’ Shanter; A Man’s a Man for A’ That, which was based on the writings in The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine; and A Red, Red Rose. He had several love affairs, his first child was born out of wedlock to his mother’s maid Elizabeth Paton while he was wooing the woman who was to be his wife, Jean Armour. He died at the age of 37. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV. In a 2018 study of street names Royal Mail claimed that the Wimbledon address was one of 19 in the capital named after the Scottish bard. Poets and writers were a popular source of road name inspiration for developers. This is one of a small cluster of roads named after poets.
