sections:

Robert Fergusson Cotter's Saturday Night - Wilkie Painting Cotter's Saturday Night - Etching Cotter's Saturday Night - Re-Enactment Tam O'Shanter - Scene Inside Kirk Tam O'Shanter - Witch Chasing Tam Tam O'Shanter - An Audio Clip Tam O'Shanter - Souter Johnny's Thatched House Tam O'Shanter - Brig O'Doon Other Works - Poem On Glass Pane Other Works - 'Macpherson's Farewell'

Extract from 'Tam O'Shanter' by Robert Burns (audio clip)

This audio recording is an extract from Robert Burns' poem, 'Tam O' Shanter'. Written in the autumn of 1790, the poem is considered by many to one of Burns' greatest pieces.

The 23 second extract reads, 'Weel mounted on his gray mare, Meg, A better never lifted leg, Tam skelpit on thro' dub and mire; Despising wind, and rain, and fire; Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet; Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet; Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares, Lest bogles catch him unawares: Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh, Whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry.'

According to Burns, Alloway Kirk, the burial place of his father, was the scene of many a good story of ghosts and witches. To accompany an illustration of the Kirk, which was to be published in Grose's 'Antiquities of Scotland', Burns agreed to write a witch story. The result was 'Tam o'Shanter', first published in Grose's 'Antiquities of Scotland' in April 1791.

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