Ireland and Scotland are lands where writers and other creative people thrive. They are inspiring places—their literature is inspiring—and our group trip will be an inspiring experience, so we all need and to have an outlet for our creativity as we travel. Those of you who went on the first trip will remember—with delight, I’m sure—our daily poetry readings at the microphone on the bus, when members of the group, including the group leaders, offer insights and silliness about the trip using the forms of the Limerick, the Haiku, and the six-word essay.

We will of course continue that practice on this trip, with one addition: the Standard Habbie or Burns Stanza. The latter is the first “challenge” offered to you because it is slightly more complex than the others and certainly less familiar. A long serving form for poetry in Scots, the Standard Habbie found a pace (the “a” lines are in tetrameter or four beats, the “b” lines in dimeter or two beats) that suited the language. Burns took up this form and used it so often and with such distinction that it has come to be called the Burns Stanza.

Reading works of our own creation is a fun way to comment on what we are seeing, doing, and experiencing as we roll around the countryside. Your poems and six-word essays should be about the trip; humor and insight always welcome. No literary expertise or even inclination is required. All are welcome to read their offerings, and no one should feel obligated. Below you will find explanations of the four forms, chosen because they are brief and manageable and because they are apt vehicles for humor.

The second challenge will be a challenge to me and my aging brain, as well. Everywhere I went in Burns country I encountered people who could recite passages from his works. When a group of alumnae and friends visited the Burns Cottage in Atlanta recently, the club members who greeted us were impressively versed in Burns’s poems. They even knew all the verses of Auld Lang Syne. So my challenge to you is—memorize a stanza (more always welcome) of a Burns poem that you like and at some point during our trip, recite it at the microphone.

Nothing like memorization to keep the mind nimble! In my father’s day (he was born in 1916) memorization of poetry in school was required and must have been often assigned. He never went to college, but he knew many, many poems by heart. When I told him I was taking Chaucer, he immediately recited the prologue of The Canterbury Tales to me in Middle English:

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour….

Come to think of it, we are making a pilgrimage of our own on our bus to literary shrines in both Ireland and Scotland. Who is up for writing an epic poem about our journey?

Later on in graduate school when I mentioned I was writing a paper on Wordsworth’s sonnet “The World Is Too Much With Us,” to my astonishment Dad launched into a recital of that poem, making it all the way to the end without a mistake.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

I’m afraid that if our last trip is any measure, there will be some “getting and spending” on this one.

I wish I had the ability to hold whole poems and prose passages in my head; it would be a great aid in teaching, but it’s too late now. Still, I plan to challenge myself by memorizing at least a stanza, maybe a whole (short) poem. I hope you will join me.  If this little girl named Robyn can do it–Robyn reciting “To A Louse” by Robert Burns–we can, too.

Here are guidelines for the four forms we’ll tackle on the trip.

The Limerick
This well-known humorous verse form has been around since the early 18^th century, was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19^th century, and is thought to have derived its name from the term “Limerick song,” a kind of drinking song.

Guidelines

• Five-lines
• Anapestic meter: short, short long; – -/; as in “’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house…
• Rhyme scheme (aaba)
• The first, second and fifth or aaa lines are longer than the bb lines
• Often disturbs normal speech patterns as in “There once was girl from Atlanta…”
• Always funny, often bawdy

Some examples from the previous trip.

Dave has his history down pat
Loves to drive, drink whiskey and chat
He’s the man with the plan
Ready to give us a hand
Now won’t you sleep better knowing dat?
(by Amy Chastain and Wes Cribb)

Which hotel are we in this a.m.?
I need coffee even to begin.
Tripped over the black case,
Fell flat on my face.
Now I’m making coffee again.
(by Margaret Barkley)

The Six-Word Essay
Another contest form for the trip is the six-word essay or narrative, made famous by Ernest Hemingway with this sad tale: “’For sale’ baby shoes, never worn.” We hope your six-word essays won’t be so sad.

Guidelines

• Six words—no cheating!
• The second part usually sheds new light on the first, adding the humor
• Must be true as opposed to fiction

Some examples from the previous trip.

Bags packed. Moving to Muckross House. (by Ellen Gaffney)

Agnes Scott husbands…a lucky lot! (by Jim Jarboe)

Long awaited, anticipated, over too soon! (by Mary K. jarboe)

Haiku
Your third option is the haiku, an ancient Japanese poetic form.

Guidelines

• Seventeen syllables
• Three phrases or lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables
• Two images or ideas with a “cutting word” between them to offset the comparison or connection
• Often has a reference to nature

Some examples from the previous trip.

The swans have left Coole.
Empty tower ‘neath the moon.
Still the words endure.
(by Betty Derrick)

Illuminati
A group of vibrant Scotties
Set Dublin aglow.
(by Gwen Shearer)

The Standard Habbie or Burns Stanza
From the online Burns Encyclopedia:
“ The stanza for characteristic of the eighteenth century Revival of Scots poetry, and particularly associated with Burns. But it was also used by Ramsay and Fergusson, and by almost every minor poet who employed Scot. Ramsay called it ‘Standard Habbie’, because the earliest use of it known to him was in ‘Habbie Simpson, the Piper of Kilbarchan’, by Robert Sempill of Beltrees (c.1595-c.i659). The ‘Standard Habbie’ is an easy stanza to write, and was particularly suited for the fast-moving social comment which was a major preoccupation with the writers of the Revival. Burns varied the form by substituting half-rhymes for full rhymes, especially at the ends of the four long lines.”

Guidelines

• Six lines in the stanza
• The rhyme scheme is aaabab
• Tetrameter (four beats) a lines and dimeter (two beats) b lines
• The second b line may or may not be repeated

An example from Burns—two wonderful stanzas from “To A Mouse.” Note how the dimeter lines add a certain punch or pithiness to the meaning of the stanza.

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 are blest, compared wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I cannot see,
          I guess an’ fear!

Remember, your poem or six-word essay must have something to do with our trip. It’s not too early to start practicing the limerick, the six-word essay, the haiku, and the Standard Habbie, or to exercise your mind on memorizing a few stanzas!

When you saw the prospectus for our trip, you probably said to yourself “Burns? Scott? Who reads them these days?” I have an answer for your doubts, but only if you’ll expand in your mind the meaning of the word “read.” Hang on though, because it will take me a minute to get there.

First of all, you are stuck with a literature person as your “group leader.” I hesitate to use that term, but please know that at some shopping locations abroad, group leaders get sizable discounts. And with the right number of trip participants, group leaders’ airfare and sometimes hotel are gratis.

I’m no expert on either Burns or Scott, but I studied them both in college and graduate school, and my dissertation, “The Magic Circle: Elizabeth Inchbald, Mary Hays, and Mary Wollstonecraft and the Politics of Domestic Fiction,” was an attempt to prove that Scott did not invent the historical novel entirely on his own, as many critics still claim. I love Scott’s novels, and I respect his efforts on behalf of his beloved Scotland, but the evolution of the novel is far more complex than “Scott invented the historical novel.”

Even more important, without Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, Scotland wouldn’t be what it is today. Each writer in his unique way contributed substantially to the creation of Scotland in the modern imagination. Interestingly, both writers reached into the past to do this.

Burns led the movement to preserve Scottish folk songs and their accompanying culture. He saw himself as the inheritor of a tradition, not an inventor of one, and relished being called Scotland’s “bard” in the old style. Back in the day, bards were much more than poets. They preserved the cultural through story and song, created and protected their patron’s reputation, and served as chief historian to the community. Burns lived in a time when Scotland’s identity was being swallowed up by Britain, and when the juggernaut of English was wiping out dialects and languages locally and all over the world (still true today). Because he wrote so many of his poems and songs in his native Lowland Scots or “Lallans,” as it was called in Ayrshire, Burns also helped preserve the old language.

Speakers of Scots today, whether in Scotland or Ulster, cherish Burns’s work, celebrating it both by performances and by educating the next generation. Today Scottish school children still learn to recite Burns’s poems, honoring the literature of their mother tongue. In Northern Ireland speakers of Ulster Scots or Ullans, a branch of Scots, teach Burns’s poems and songs in the schools under the auspices of the Ulster-Scots Agency (which we will visit when we’re in Belfast). With his love of natural settings, his command of language and rhythm, and his deep understanding of human nature, Burns makes a valuable and engaging study.

Even more purposefully than Burns, Scott sought to preserve the history and legends of his homeland in the poems that made him famous and in the novels he churned out during the second half of his career. In the novels, he brought forward past heroes of independent spirit, like Rob Roy, and invented others to serve as model Scottish men, and he populated the novels with an amazing and lively array of characters–a strategy we call “Dickensian” today. He also set about reviving the culture of the Highlands, which had faded from public attention as the Highlanders were driven north and persecuted. He saw the oppressed Highland people as Scotland in embryo. In his writing and in his life, he fueled the surge of interest in not only the ethos and culture of the Highlands but also the distinctive  Highland style of dress: tartan, kilt, sporran, kilt pin, clan badges, glengarry bonnet, ghillies, and all.

Scott participated enthusiastically in the newly invented “tradition” of associating one tartan design with a particular family or class (previously tartans had reflected only regional identity) and helped make the trend all the rage. When King George the IV visited Scotland in 1822, a very grand shindig engineered by Scott, the celebrity author persuaded the king to appear in full Highland dress. It is said that for the famous painting of His Majesty in this costume, the artist SIr David Wilkie replaced the monarch’s bright pink tights with elegant knees and socks. He also modulated the dazzle of the jewels, the brightness of the kilt, and the fat on the royal person.

It is interesting to note that Burns and Scott both came from the band of Scottish territory closest to Britain, where English ways and English authority easily penetrated. There was more intermingling and more intermarriage here than in the more northern reaches of the province. Did this nearness to the great foe of centuries make the need for a Scottish identity more intense?

In any case, Burns and Scott were part of a larger nationalistic movement sweeping Europe that would erupt in self-defining revolutions and rebellions for a century to come. The Scotland they dreamed of, wrote about, and celebrated is the Scotland we know today.

The answer to your doubts about these two literary giants depends on the meaning of the word “read.” No, people don’t read much Burns or Scott these days if you’re talking about picking up a book, and more’s the pity. People around the world encounter Burns every time they sing “Auld Lang Syne,” of course, or any one of the dozens of songs he penned. And his words and insights creep into our language every day without our noticing (click Robert Burns in Our Daily Language for a short list of just a few common Burnsian sayings). Burns clubs ring the globe, and knowledge of his work is far more widespread than is generally credited.

For his part, Scott revolutionized the novel’s form by using it to retell the past and popularizing the technique. Would we have Wolf Hall, I, Claudius, or A Tale of Two Cities without his bold and voluminous example? Though he would not have supported an independent Scotland, he built the foundation upon which the independence movement rests by giving Scotland’s its history–separate from England’s history–albeit fictionalized to glorify a certain ethos. And don’t forget, until that other Scot J. K Rowling came along, Scott reigned as the world’s most most famous writer.

To read Scotland,  to read the novel as it has evolved in our day, to read the reading mind of the world’s people, to read the human heart, you can do no better than to read and study Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.

 

In Scotland, you can’t go very far without running into Robert Burns in some form or another.

On July 1, 1999, the Scottish Parliament opened for business for the first time since 1707. For nearly three hundred years, direct rule from Westminster had shaped the destinies of all Scots, a situation that did not sit well with Scottish nationalists of any degree of fervor, so it was a joyous occasion in Edinburgh on that day in 1999. The Queen was there to give a speech, a parade supplied the appropriate pomp and grandeur, and crowds thronged the city to catch a glimpse of the proceedings or the celebrities. But for many, the most poignant and important moment of the day was when folksinger Sheena Wellington stood up in the chamber to sing “A Man’s a Man for a’ That” by Robert Burns.

To listen to the performance, click here. For Scots words you don’t know, click here.

What better way to celebrate democracy, representative government, and an egalitarian society in which the “content of [one’s] character” matters more than wealth, position, race, or creed? As a number of his poems reveal, Robert Burns was interested in these ideas, which were deemed radical and dangerous in his time. In his youth, he had been inspired by the American Revolution and in 1795, when his radical poem was published, the French Revolution raged on very close to home. Anyone in Great Britain who expressed overt sympathy with the revolutionaries across the channel would have been in serious trouble.

Tellingly, Burns never agreed to the publication of the poem with his name attached, though his fame was such and his idiom so well known that others were easily able to guess who wrote it. The poem doesn’t go so far as to advocate the destruction of the upper classes, but it does argue forcefully for what Tom Paine had deemed “the rights of man”—the rights of the common man—just a few years earlier (1791).

“A Man’s a Man for A’ That” is copied below if you want to read or review it. Here are just a few thoughts about each stanza.

As is often the case, Burns titled the poem after its first line, “Is There for Honest Poverty,” but it wasn’t long before it became know for the key line in stanza 3, including the repetition of the phrase “for a’ that” (“for all that”). That three-word phrase and several variations of it (“a’ that,” “an a’ that”) form a “through line” of both meaning and rhythm throughout the five stanzas. The meaning shifts slightly with each repetition, but “a’ that” always implies a shared understanding or common ideals. It is one of the many democratizing claims in the poem. “The Man’s the gowd [gold] for a’ that” is another: the man or the person is the “gold,” not the rank, the clothing, fancy food and wine, the money, or anything else acquired for show or to hold power over others.

Some scholars have linked the phrase “coward-slave” to the question of slavery and abolition, very much in public debate in Burns’s circle. Was he somehow looking down on slaves, blaming them for their captivity and subservience? This interpretation doesn’t jive with the rest of the poem or with what we know of Burns’s albeit complicated views on slavery. He claimed to be against slavery, but at one point he did contemplate emigrating to Jamaica and working as a sort of administrator-worker on a plantation–a tacit approval, perhaps, of the economic arrangements found there.

From another perspective, “coward-slave” could also refer to someone who allows his mind, his dignity to be “enslaved” by acquiescence to rank and wealth, an idea that emerges later in the poem when Burns lauds the ” independent mind.” Welcome to the world of literary interpretation where, maddeningly, “nothing is only one thing” (To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 1927)!

As an educator, I particularly like the last lines of stanza 3, in which Burns celebrates “the man o’ independent mind.” The poet seems to be reminding us that we ourselves have the capacity to break free of society’s false strictures. The “birkie ca’d a lord” [spirited fellow called a lord] who “struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that” is “but a coof [fool] for a’ that.” The man of independent mind is truly free because he has the strength of character to laugh at “a’ that,” seeing it for what it is. I intend to start using “coof” in my everyday vocabulary.

An honest man is above the “might” of a prince, a marquis, or a duke (Stanza 4)—” Guid faith, he mauna fa’ that!” [Good faith, he must not fault that!] –an honest man must not fault that

For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Their dignities, an’ a’ that,
The pith o’ Sense an’ pride o’ Worth
Are higher rank than a’ that.

Sense and self-worth are the only marks of high rank worth recognizing. Would that we lived in a  world today where that was true!

The last stanza of Burns’s poem foreshadows another great utterance that would come in a speech more than 150 years later.  A comparison of the two reminds us of the long journey towards equality and social justice.  Here is Burns.

For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s comin yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.

And here is Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963,  from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

I have a dream that…one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

Both poets–for King was a poet of oratory–use the future tense for their dream of sisterhood-brotherhood. Fifty-five years later, the struggle continues.

 

A Man’s a Man for a’ That

Is there for honest Poverty
That hings his head, an’ a’ that;
The coward-slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that.
Our toils obscure an’ a’ that,
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,
The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an’ a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man’s a Man for a’ that:
For a’ that, and a’ that,
Their tinsel show, an’ a’ that;
The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor,
Is king o’ men for a’ that.

Ye see yon birkie ca’d a lord,
Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that,
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a coof for a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His ribband, star, an’ a’ that,
The man o’ independent mind,
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that.

A Prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an’ a’ that!
But an honest man’s aboon his might –
Guid faith, he mauna fa’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Their dignities, an’ a’ that,
The pith o’ Sense an’ pride o’ Worth
Are higher rank than a’ that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a’ that,
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth
Shall bear the gree an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s comin yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.

Scroll down to see posts 1 and 2. The green words are links to online resources.

Even if I weren’t a literature person, we would have to study Sir Walter Scott to understand modern Scotland. Fortunately, Scott lived in a beautiful and interesting part of the province, and his world-wide fame meant that the places where he lived and worked and dreamed would be preserved for future generations to enjoy. We’ll visit some of these places and learn to understand Scott’s love for the region.

Our Scott days are centered in Melrose, Roxburghshire, a beautiful village in the Scottish Borders. The town grew up around Melrose Abbey, a Cistercian abbey founded in the early 12th century that was already a ruin in Scott’s day, thanks to the English armies under Henry VIII. The abbey is thought to be one of the most beautiful ruins in the UK. Robert the Bruce’s heart is buried on the grounds. Look for the bagpipe-playing pig gargoyle when you’re visiting the abbey. Scott grew up in this area, and once he had won fame and fortune, made his home at Abbotsford, just outside Melrose, where we’ll have a guided visit.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)—jurist, poet, novelist, collector, architect, renaissance man—took what Burns had unwittingly accomplished to the next level. Many scholars and popular writers credit Scott with Scotland’s modern-day identity—tartans, Highland heroes, romantic legends, nationalism, and all.

He is probably the most popular author ever on a world scale with one exception—another Scot named J. K. Rowling. The monument commemorating him in Edinburgh bears this out: at 200 feet, 6 inches tall, it has 68 figurative statues in addition to the enormous one of Scott and his dog. No monument to a writer anywhere in the world comes close to it in size.

Had he only written poetry, Scott’s fame would have still been phenomenal. No writer has done more to bring poetry to a wide audience. But in 1814 he changed careers and became even more famous as novelist, penning over 20 novels along with numerous plays and short stories before he was through. In addition to his astounding literary career, he orchestrated several dramatic historical events worthy of Geraldo Rivera and modern reality television. What did Scott accomplish and why was he so popular? Why are his works hardly mentioned and rarely taught today? We’ll try to answer these questions and more.

Readings
Waverley by Walter Scott, published 1814 (any edition). This is Scott’s first and most famous novel and a good “way in” to his fiction.  It is credited with being the first historical novel, but we’ll talk about why that claim is overblown.

If you want to read more, try Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and The Heart of Midlothian (said to be his best).

Sir Walter Scott: his Life and Work by John Buchan (Luath Press Ltd. 2015, 1925) is an excellent, though older biography of Scott, reissued in 2015.

Scott-land: The Man Who Invented a Nation by Stuart Kelly  takes on some of the difficult questions about Scott’s life and work while crediting him with creating an identity for modern Scotland (Birlinn Ltd. 2011).

Scott was a world famous poet before he was a novelist. Like his novels, his poems reflect his interest in history and mythology. Here are his two most famous poems.

The Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott

The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott

Films
An interesting lecture about Scott’s importance to Scottish identity.
Did Sir Walter Scott invent Scotland? A Lecture by Dr. Juliet Shields.

The Story of Scott’s home, Abbotsford.
Sir Walter Scott’s Home in Scotland–Abbotsford

Tentative Itinerary
June 10 – Today we’ll visit Sir Walter Scott’s magnificent home, Abbotsford House, for a guided tour; the beautiful ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, where Scott is buried; and several local spots that were important to the author. The afternoon is free. There are many fascinating places to visit within a few miles of Melrose (castles and estates, gardens, abbeys, walks, etc.), or you may want to spend time in this lovely village and visit the famous Melrose Abbey. Overnight Melrose.

June 11 – We’ll drive to nearby Selkirk to visit Bowhill House, a magnificent estate and residence of the Duke of Buccleach and Queensberry that was important to Sir Walter Scott, followed by a guided tour of Locharron Tartan Mill Visitor Centre (and shopping). Return to Melrose for few hours of free time. In the evening we’ll have a group dinner and ceilidh [KAY-lee] (traditional music and dance) performance at the Townhouse Hotel. Be sure to wander the streets of Melrose before departing. Overnight Melrose.

June 12 – It’s short drive to Roslin, where we will have a guided tour of the stunning Rosslyn Chapel, a 15^th-century church with elaborate carvings made famous by Scott in his “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” and more recently by Dan Brown in his thriller The Da Vinci Code. We continue our journey to South Queensferry for free time to explore this pretty town, where three magnificent bridges cross the Firth of Forth. The Hawes Inn next to the famous Forth Bridge (a cantilever bridge built for trains in 1890) was the setting for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, and Stevenson used to stay here. We’ll drive to our Loch Lomond hotel to stay for the next two nights. Overnight Loch Lomond.

June 13 – After all this literary and historical tourism, we need a day on a lake! This morning the group will tour the magnificent Loch Lomond by boat and later by bus. The lake is the dividing line between the Highlands and the Lowlands. There will also be opportunities to arrange individual excursions. Farewell dinner for the group at our hotel tonight (even though we have one more night in Scotland). Overnight Loch Lomond. Overnight Loch Lomond.

June 14 – Transfer to Edinburgh where the group will take a half-day guided tour focused on the literary perspective: the world famous “Book Lovers Tour.” We’ll have a few free hours in the city before driving to our airport hotel for the last night. Overnight Edinburgh.

June 15 – Transfer to Edinburgh airport and fly home to Atlanta or elsewhere!

 

It would be no exaggeration to say that Robert “Robbie” Burns (1759-1796) was the Elvis Presley of nineteenth-century Scotland. Even his own day, his popularity was extraordinary. As a self-educated man from rural, agricultural Scotland, Burns wrote poetry that spoke to and of the people and also captured the attention of the upper classes. His interest in folk culture came at a time when other Europeans were beginning to turn to native influences instead of seeing the ancient world (Greece and Rome) as the epitome of civilization. And his use of the Scots language in much of his poetry fueled the movement to preserve that language and the culture of the Lowland Scots. To many he seemed to embody the essence of what it was to be Scottish, and adulation of Robert Burns and all that he seemed to stand for became a cult in Europe, America, and all around the world that persists to this day. We’ll examine the man, the poetry, and the myth, and we’ll try to discover what Burns’s poetry has to offer two and a quarter centuries after his death.

The first part of our sojourn in Scotland was planned around Burns’s life and legacy, but we start with a famous Scottish Castle and incredible scenery. After taking the ferry from Ireland to Scotland, we’ll visit one of Scotland’s most stunning edifices, Culzean Castle (pronounced kull-ANE), perched above the Firth of Clyde on the Ayrshire coast. The castle is usually rated the “best castle” in Scotland and includes gardens, shops, a café, and gorgeous views. We’re staying two nights in Ayr, Ayrshire, to be close to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in the village of Alloway, where we’ll have a guided tour the next morning.

The cottage where Burns was born is on the site, as is the haunted church that inspired his famous poem“Tam O’Shanter,” the fifteenth century bridge Brig O’Doon that figures in the poem, and a beautiful memorial garden. The Burns Museum houses an amazing collection of artifacts and memorabilia associated with Burns. In the museum you begin to get an idea of the intensity and range of the Burns cult.

Following our second night in Ayr, we’ll drive south and east to two Burns sites on our way to Melrose. Ellisland Farm is a lovely, bucolic spot where Burns spent perhaps his happiest and most stable years. He built the farm himself, and today it is preserved in his memory. It was here that he composed “Tam O’Shanter” and other works. We’ll have time to walk around farm and along the river. After lunch at the farm and a recitation of Tam O’Shanter, we will drive a short ways to Dumfries, where Burns spent his final years, to visit the Burns House and his magnificent grave at the nearby St. Michael’s Church. In the late afternoon, the scenic drive from Dumfries to Melrose takes us into Sir Walter Scott country.

Readings
Any collection of Burns poems will remind you of how many of these you already know. Burns was an astute observer of human behavior, and he had a knack for pithy sayings that still creep into conversation over two hundred years later.

Many if not all of his poems have been set to music, and you will find many familiar tunes and lyrics. Youtube has a great collection, like this stunning version of “Green Grow the Rashes O” by Jean Redpath, my favorite interpreter of Burns.

Here is a handout of The Poetry of Robert Burns that I compiled. If you have any favorites you want the group to know about that aren’t on the handout, please let me know.

And here is a side-by-side translation (you’ll need it!) of Burn’s famous poem Robert Burns’s Tam O’Shanter.

Burns’s poetry is best as song, I believe. Listen to this stunning rendition of his “Green Grow the Rashes O” by Jean Redpath, my favorite interpreter of Burns. There are many recordings of his poems available on YouTube and elsewhere on line.

There are many biographies of Burns, but the best recent one probably The Bard by Robert Crawford (Pimlico 2010).

Films
Here are a few online films about Burns’s life.

Robert Burns: The People’s Poet (BBC)

Robert Burns: The Man and his Legends (Edge Hill Communications)

Tentative Itinerary
June 7 and 8, overnight near Ayr, Ayfordshire

June 8–Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, local Burns sites; free afternoon

June 9–Ellisand Farm for tour and lunch; Dumfries to see Burns house and grave; drive to Melrose and Sir Walter Scott country

Welcome to the 2018 Agnes Scott Alumnae Trip to Ireland and Scotland! I’m starting to get really excited about the trip, and I hope you are, too. Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting information about the trip, along with some of my own thoughts and observations. I welcome your suggestions as to what I should write about.

Scroll down to see earlier posts–the newest one is always on top. I’d love it if you would use the “Comment” function just to let me know you are reading or to add your thoughts and questions.

Let’s start with the first four days of the trip! The brief introduction is followed by reading and film lists and a preliminary itinerary for the first part of the trip.

Belfast During and After The Troubles

Like Derry, Belfast was an epicentre for The Troubles from the late 1960s to 1998, and the peace agreement of that year was negotiated in the capital city. At one time, the city was dotted with barricades, police vehicles looked like armored tanks, certain neighborhoods were off limits to certain groups, and tourism was virtually unknown. Today, Belfast is a major tourist destination with three “hop-on-hop-off” tour bus companies and a booming international film industry. Drawing on literature, history, and film, we will examine how the conflict came to be, what happened in Belfast and in Northern Ireland during that period, how the conflict shaped the city, and how Belfast has fared since the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The first four days of our trip are modeled on my “Journeys—Northern Ireland: The Trouble with Peace,” a travel immersion course that was part of SUMMIT in 2017. The Belfast Peace Agreement of 1998 sought to bring an end to The Troubles, a thirty-year period of sectarian strife in Northern Ireland (NI). Eighteen years later the violence has abated, civil rights have been gained, the cities are rebuilt, the economy has improved, and rising tourism is only one of many “peace dividends.” But how deep do these changes go? Can the problems of the past be forgiven and forgotten? What are the successes and the challenges of peace? How are changing demographics, new racial and ethnic diversity, and globalization complicating life in NI? To find answers to these questions, we’ll visit sites, museums, and monuments that tell the story of The Troubles, and we’ll talk to Northern Irelanders about the realities of the conflict, peace, and reconciliation.

Belfast was at one time on the U.S. State Department’s list of places NOT to visit; today it has a rich cultural and civic life and a thriving tourist industry. We’ll tour the city focusing on the events of the conflict and the ways in which it still marks the cityscape today, as well as on its industrial, scientific, and cultural heritage. A panel of former paramilitaries will help us understand why they were involved then and what they are doing now to reject violence and move forward in peacetime. During our tour of the Linen Hall Library, we will explore this bastion of free thought in the middle of a city divided by sectarian strife. As the library’s web site says,

The Linen Hall Library is a truly unique institution. Founded in 1788, it is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Ireland. It has a radical and ‘enlightenment’ foundation, and ever since has prized its independence and has maintained the principle that its resources are owned by the community for the community.

Another highlight of our trip will be visiting with proponents of the Ulster-Scots language (Ulster Scots Agency) and the Irish Gaelic language (Turas Irish Language Programme), who see language learning as a way to build community within and across borders.

While we may not come away with all of our questions answered, I think you’ll find you will have a much better understanding of the history and current situation of Northern Ireland, the successes and failures of the post-conflict era, the region’s rich and complex cultural heritage, and the role Northern Ireland plays today in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the world.

Clicking on the green words will take you to a document or an online source (audio, video, web site, etc.)

 Readings—fiction
The Way Paver by Anne Devlin and Naming the Names by Anne Devlin
When we are in Belfast we’ll have an evening with Anne Devlin.
The Wall Reader by Fiona Barr

These come from a great collection called The Hurt World: Short Stories of The Troubles ed. Michael Parker, Blackstaff Press LTD. 1995.

 Readings—history (if you’re interested and want to know more)
There are many good accounts of The Troubles. I’ll recommend two here. The first is a detailed, fair, readable account, updated in 2012. The second is written by a journalist and tells the story well—it might be the place to start.

McKittrick, David and David McVea. Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict. Viking, 2012.

Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland’s Ordeal and the Search for Peace. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002.

Films
There are many good films about The Troubles. I’ll list a few of the major ones here. Again—view at your leisure.

The Boxer, dir. Jim Sheridan, 1997.
In the Name of the Father, dir. Jim Sheridan, 1993.
Hunger, dir. Steve McQueen, 2008.
Some Mother’s Son, dir. Terry George, 1996.
The Crying Game, dir. Neil Jordan, 1992.
’71, dir. Yann Demange, 2014.

Brief and tentative itinerary
June 3–arrival in Dublin and break fast at the Man O’War historic pub; drive to Belfast.

June 4–Belfast City Tour, murals; lunch in city centre; visit with Linda Ervine at Turas  (Irish language as peacebuilding)

June 5–Coiste panel at our hotel (former paramilitaries talk about the conflict and post-conflict); lunch and talk at the Ulsters Scots Agency (Ulster Scots language); afternoon free; theatre evening at Lyric (Brian Friel’s Lovers Winners Losers).

June 6–free day; Antrim Coast drive as one option; author Anne Devlin will give a reading and talk after dinner at our hotel.

June 7–Ferry to Scotland; visit Culzean Castle; overnight Ayr.