Robert Burns: Farmer

Few readers of Robert Burns poetry appreciate the rigors of the farming life to which he was brought up. Farming in Ayrshire, Scotland in the late 18th century involved an arduous & demanding routine. The domestic architecture, the equipment, the animals, the techniques, the whole way of life, are all present in the most detailed & intimate way in Burns poetry. Reading Gavin Sprott s account of all this, with its precise detail & its careful pointing to the reflection of the farming life in the poetry, we are given a new awareness of the context & meaning of what Burns wrote. The book is beautifully illustrated with drawings, photographs, & examples of Burns writing in his own hand.