The spirit of romance and revolution

The Poet of the American Revolution is Philip Freneau (1752—1832), an ardent patriot. However, the importance of his political poetry is no more, but one of his best poems is not in the least revolutionary in spirit. It was virtually unread in his lifetime. Yet his The Wild Honey Suckle deserves a place among major English and American works of poetry of that time.

On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was adopted. On that same day, a book by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, was published. That book nourished the economic thinking of generations. That same summer, a 17-year-old Scottish lad was dexterously plowing land in his native country and, simultaneously, was composing captivating rhymes. A bewitching young creature aged fifteen or so was once his partner in harvesting. Among her love-inspiring qualities, she sung sweetly, and it was to her favorite reel that the young lad attempted to compose his first-ever rhyme. Thus, love and poetry began in his life.

A poet was born whose name was to become world famous, Robert Burns. That young peasant was creating a Romantic Revolution of his own. He was perhaps the first real poetic rebel of the century. He revolted, in his personal life, against the restraints of conventional morality and the repressive Presbyterian religion of Scotland: he drank too much, loved not wisely but too well, and died too young. But he wrote beautifully in the rough and earthy style of his own land. At his time, it was extremely refreshing. There was nothing hypocritical about Burns. He sang about the things he liked – including women and drink – with gusto and without shame. He also had a strong sense of humor, and a sympathy with the downtrodden, whether man or beast. Even a field mouse deserves a perfectly serious ode from Burns.

Commemorating Burns' centennial in 1859, Ralph W. Emerson spoke of Burns in the poetic language of his.

"Robert Burns, the poet of the middle class, represents in the mind of men today, that great uprising of the middle class against the armed and privileged minorities – that uprising that worked politically in the American and French revolutions, and which, not in governments so much as in education and social order, has changed the face of the world. In order for this destiny, his birth, breeding, and fortune were low. His organic sentiment was absolute independence, and resting, as it should, on a life of labour.

No man existed who could look down on him. They that liked into his eyes saw that they might look down on the sky as easily. His muse and teaching was common sense, joyful, aggressive, irresistible. No one struck more telling blows against false theology than did this brave singer. The Confession of Augsburg, the Declaration of Independence, the French Rights of Man, and the "Marseillaise" are not more weighty documents in the history of freedom than the songs of Burns. His is so substantially a reformer, and I find his grand, plain sense in close chain with the greatest masters – Rablais, Shakespeare in comedy, Cervantes, and Butler.

And how true a poet he is! He has given voice to all the experiences of common life; he has endeared the farmhouse and cottages, patches and poverty, beans and barley; ale the poor man's wine; hardship; the fear of debt, the dear society of weans and wife, of brothers and sisters, proud of each other, and finding amends for want and obscurity in books and thought. What a love of nature! and – shall I say? – of middle-class nature. Not great, like Goethe, in the stars, or like Byron, on the ocean, or Moore, in the luxurious East, but in the homely landscape which the poor see around them – bleak leagues of pasture and stubble, ice, and sleet, and rain, and snow-choked brooks…

And so had he the language of low life. He grew in a rural district, speaking a patois unintelligible to all but natives, and he has made that Lowland Scotch a Doric dialect of fame. It is the only example in history of a language made classic by the genius of single man…"

A hundred years later, another American author sought inspiration in the poetry by Robert Burns. The title of the book that became immensely popular with young readers originated from a song by Burns. The image of ideal life-style, a curious combination of sporting America and Christian belief, is expressed by the main character, Holden Caulfield, under the influence of Burns's poetry. The symbolism found in The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger owes much to the rebellious Scottish poet.