Poet and Lyricist Robert Burns (1759-1796) was a pioneer poet of the Romantic movement and national hero to his homeland of Scotland. In this four-session course, we’ll read selected works aloud, discuss their literary merit, and learn about their cultural contexts. We will look at Burns as a writer of love lyrics, satire, as well as political and social commentary.

We’ll also get up close and personal with parts of the Rosenbach’s collection of 100 autograph poems and letters and 35 early printed editions—the largest single gathering of Robert Burns’s works in any institution.

Click here to view the course syllabus.

About the Instructor: Dr. Stephen Smith is a professor and the assistant chair of the English Department at LaSalle University. He specializes in 18th-century literature, Romanticism, Scottish literature, and modernism. In both work and life, he subscribes to the words spoken by a Flann O’Brien character: “Answers do not matter so much as questions … . A good question is very hard to answer. There is no answer at all to a very good question.”

This Reading Group is in progress. To learn more about our upcoming Reading Groups, click here.