Robert Burns :: essays research papers

the great unwashed have made entire c arers off the belief in and practices of astrology. The liking of the stars determining our fate has withheld peoples interest for centuries. Robert burn, an Aquarius, was very anti-superstition. He had almost no belief in astrological predictions or zodiac households. on that point is some humor in this though, because through Burns poems and boygs this pseudoscience shows just how undefiled it can be. The most parallel example of Burns personality and his Aquarius sign can be seen in the work The Fornicator.Robert Burns was born January 25, 1759, son to a dirt poor sodbuster and a mother who never learned to write her own name. He held many jobs before do a name for himself as a poet, to include a farmer and excise officer. Burns was famed for his poetry and songs and has been called Scotlands answer to Shakespeare. He was also renowned for his excessive drinking and womanizing, integrity such biographer, Ian McIntyre, remarked that Bur ns was incapable of addressing a woman, on paper or in the flesh, without placing a hand on her thigh. It was also reported that he fathered over a dozen children in and out of marriage. The official reason for Burns cobblers last was rheumatic heart disease, but it is often attributed to the bottle. Upon death critics and obituary writers tagged him a drunkard.Aquarius, the zodiac symbol assigned to those born between January 21 and February 19. handed-down Aquarian traits are that they are friendly and humanitarian, original and inventive, independent and intellectual. Some veto aspects of Aquarians are that they can be intractable and contrary, perverse and unpredictable, unemotional and detached. Aquarians slackly possess strong and attractive personalities. They can fall into two categories one shy, sensitive, gentle and patient the other exuberant, lively and exhibitionist, sometimes hiding the discernment of their character under a cloak of frivolity. Among the faults t o which Aquarians are liable are fanatical eccentricity, wayward egotism, excessive detachment and an inclination to retreat from life-time and society.The poem the Fornicator speaks to all the young gentlemen of Burns era and straightaways male audience. This piece is active Burns referring to himself as a fornicator and impregnating a girl, Elizabeth Paton, out of wed lock. There is an air of derision and regret throughout the poem not some much about impregnating the woman but having to deal with the hassles of potentially being bogged down with a child.