Today is January 25th, which in Scotland is Burn's Night - a celebration of the life and poetry of the acclaimed Scottish poet Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796).

In this week's Harp Blog I wanted to give you some history of Burns and his vast contribution to Scottish Music.

I also made a new arrangement of one of his most famous love songs, “Ae Fond Kiss” - it's an intermediate level arrangement, suitable for harps with 25+ strings and you can find the sheet music here and there’s a video of the arrangement at the end of the post: https://www.ailierobertson.com/harp-music-shop/ae-fond-kiss

Robert Burns was born on 25 January 1759 in the village of Alloway, near Ayr (https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/robert-burns/). Despite his short life (he died aged just 37), Burns left a huge catalogue of poetry and songs. In 1786 at the age of 27 that he rose to fame with the publication of his first collection of poetry, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. This “masterful collection made a huge impression on Edinburgh's literary elite, and propelled Burns to celebrity status” (Visit Scotland). He also spent many years collecting and preserving traditional Scottish songs for the future, many of which were published in the Scots Musical Museum.

In his personal life, Burns had 12 children, nine with his wife Jean Armour. However, Jean was not the only woman to gain Burns’ favour. One of his most famous affairs was with Agnes 'Nancy' McLehose and resulted in the writing of Ae Fond Kiss, written in 1791. The song was first published in 1792 in James Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum. (Burns Museum Website)

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee.

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.

I’ll ne’er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy:
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.

Had we never lov’d sae kindly,
Had we never lov’d sae blindly,
Never met-or never parted,
We had ne’er been broken-hearted.

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweeli alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee.