Aug 5–“Cotters’ Saturday Night” (1786) by Robert Burns

 Illustrated AND read aloud!

“Cotters’ Saturday Night” (1786) by Robert Burns

Summary: Buuurrrrrrnnnnnnsssss

Commentary: The timing on this one is weird. For my part, I just got done promising I'd not rush the readings this week, let them marinate, etc. And then I get a Burns poem. Usually I read the first half page or so of a Burns selection to make sure he still sucks, skim the rest, fill in the blog. I can only tolerate so much non-English/garbage poetry in one night. I soldiered through and read (and listened, since poems are usually better aloud) this one a little more closely. 

I wrote a whole paragraph about how Eliot should've picked this for a Saturday, before realizing that Saturdays shift (unless we go to a fixed calendar!) but he also could've put it in last week on its own publication date. He did note that today is Burns's anniversary. Had I not had a brain fart about the Saturday thing, I'd probably have accepted that as a good enough reason without thinking about the publication date part.

In terms of the actual reading, I still don't "get" Burns. Some of it, I assume, is the language issue. The "Scots dialect"/borderline EME is a pain to read. Even with "translation" it feels pretty straightforward in meaning (quiet country life and family good) and it doesn't have any particular lyricism, clever rhyme, imagery, etc. I feel like, if anything, it'd work better as a straight flash piece (or maybe prose poem) about the evening. I still don't know that it'd be good but I'm imaging it as kind of comfy. In his stronger moments:

But hark! a rap comes gently to the door;

Jenny, wha kens the meaning o the same;

Tells how a neebor lad came o'er the moor,

To do some errands, and convoy her hame.

The wily mother sees the conscious flame

Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek;

With heart-struck anxious care, inquires his name,

While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak;

Weel-pleas'd the mother hears, it's nae wild, worthless rake.

He's kind of cute. If it wasn't crammed into an awkward poem, you could get a nice paragraph about a girl bringing a boy home here. Burns would probably still be sloppy but, "A gentle rap comes to the door." would be a bit of an improvement. 

He's like the poetry version of Thomas Kincaid. Everything is pretty and blurry, without anything to think about.

It's got a reference to the famous mouse poem in "The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh." I guess it's good at least that I learned enough about Burns to recognize his references to himself? 

I really tried on this one, but it's still bad.