Of these three, probably only "To a Mountain Daisy" is usually heard in the mainstream Burns repertoire. While it is in the customary Scots Tongue, the other two that I have chosen are in Standard English, which indeed was the language of much of his work. All three are illustrative of Burns the Son Of The Soil rather than Burns the Patriot or Burns the Political Animal: although today it is possible to ascribe political sensibilities into the two "English" ones, 18th Century Scotland was a very different place from 21st Century Britain. For that reason I think it unwise to assume any political motive in Rabbie's writing of the present pieces. However, if the cap fits today ... 

Robert Burns - To a Mountain Daisy

Robert Burns - On Scaring Some Waterfowl in Loch Turit

Robert Burns - On Seeing a Wounded Hare

This supernatural/horror story by Bierce is once again in the public eye thanks to its being a central reference point in the HBO series “True Detective”. 

Whether the “Hali (whom God rest)” referred-to by the author in the introduction is the 11th Century Astrologer Haly or Hali Abenragel or, as wikipedia suggests, the somewhat-later Urdu poet Altaf Hussain Hali - a contemporary of Bierce's still very much alive when the story was written - is not a matter on which I propose to dwell: that is to say I neither know nor need to know in order to enjoy the ripping yarn (to use a British term) that follows. And as for that bit of hokum at the end, well ...

The photo is of a 17th-Century stone in St. Bridget's Churchyard, Dyserth, North Wales.

Some interesting further reading here:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/02/16/3292391/true-detective-carcosa/
and lots of other places too, I'm sure.
A more critical view from week 6 can be found here:
http://flavorwire.com/442041/is-true-detective-misogynist-probably-not-but-we-wont-know-until-its-over/

Ambrose Bierce - "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" (1891)

From "The Travels of Marco Polo" - The Desert of Lop

20 January. In 2016 I will not post for Burns Night. I have gone instead for another anniversary, not  from the secular calendar but referring nonetheless to a largely secular custom. January 21 is the Feast Day of St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins; as John Keats'  sumptuous 42-verse comeallye  relates, in past times it was customary for young girls to observe a fasting/silence ritual which supposedly helped them identify their future husbands. In my imaginary book of "Mother's Tall Tales" the Eve of St. Agnes, January 20, is writ large. It was my parents' wedding anniversary, and - Mother said - St. Magdalene's (sic) day. Only today did I research that latter statement, and needless to say it's no such thing: for the record the Feast Day of St.Mary Magdalene falls on July 22. 

The land that my dad farmed for nearly 50 years had upon it a natural spring complete with old well. Consecrated by the Catholic church during the Victorian railway boom in expectation of an immigrant influx that never happened, that was the intended site of the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Lanarkshire. Somehow that became obfuscated in the maternal folklore with her anniversary, and with the heroine Madeline and with the plot of Sir Walter Scott's "Jock o' Hazeldean" - which in some of its themes is similar to that of the present poem. (She did indeed marry my grandfather's youngest son and allegedly he did sing "Jock" to her, but  of course I wasn't there.) So, there is much to unravel. These complications remind me of the confusion of two American folk songs, "John Hardy" and "John Henry", whose respective subjects are frequently wrongly conflated even although one was a white baddie an the other a black hero; they did however share an unfortunate lack of judgement in matters related to the opposite sex that led to their respective undoings - wherein possibly lies the confusion. Our heroes Jock and Porphyro fared rather better of course; they both got to the end of their songs in one piece! 

I am aware, of course, that there is a racial or rather a cross-cultural element to the work.. It is well to bear in mind the context of the time in which the action is set and to treat the stereotyping accordingly. In fact, given the prevailing views of two centuries ago (in many ways less malevolent than those of today) I would contend that Keats is far from inappropriate. Anyway, we are left in no doubt that the right guy got the girl, right?

As regards performance... given the English provenance of the tale I had some concerns about a Scots-accented delivery, which I guess may ruffle some feathers. With today's fashionable emphasis in the voiceover industry on accent and dialect work perhaps it even runs the risk of some ridicule, but as the great Patrick Fraley has remarked it's not about "fooling the locals", it's about authenticity. Good stories transcend nationality. As regards any pronunciation errors and my playing fast-and-loose (if that is how you see it) with the rhyme scheme, consider how many different words Keats has used to rhyme with our heroine's name  - how DO you say "Madeline" anyway? I am in any case averse to the reduction of fine poetry to sing-song and have an ambivalence about the sanctity of the line-break as you will hear. The difference between a poem and a song is less structural than contextual - indeed they are often structurally similar - and it is my view that to (as it were) sing "St.Agnes' Eve" loses much of its rich narrative quality. At the same time I have endeavoured to follow Keats as he occasionally does enter Singalong Mode and leave it again.

Mother's Tall Tale of St. Magdalene's Well features obscurely in my own "Haywood Trilogy" which I have now decided will acquire the status of Lost Classic. Well, at least for now. Oh and by the way January 20 is the feast of St. Sebastian, patron saint of athletes and latterly-designated gay icon. So one way or another it really is all about getting your man.

John Keats (1795 - 1821) - The Eve of Saint Agnes

Demo reel for corporate reads, training videos, and infomercials.

Music credits:
"Cupid's Revenge", "Happy Boy End Theme", "Motivator", "NewsSting", "Stages of Grief"  - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

"Alison" by Jason Shaw, Public Domain via freepd.com
"Blank Letter To God" by statusq, Public Domain via freepd.com

Voiceover Demo Reel: Corporate, Training, Infomercials

Narration Demo Reel: Non-Fiction

From the pen of my friend Sandy Longhorn in Little Rock, Arkansas. Now that the Hamilton episode has brought the “love is love” meme back into the spotlight, it is more worth saying than even before.

I Stand With You

From the BBC News explainer http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-39257886

Indyref2 - your questions answered: What is a Section 30 Order?

Adapted from “Total Eclipses of the Sun” by Mabel Loomis Todd (1856–1932)

Robert Burns – 'The Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie, The Author's Only Pet Yowe, an Unco Mournfu' Tale.'

A Scottish Catullus, of sorts.

 “This tale is partly true; the poet's pet ewe got entangled in her tether, and tumbled into a ditch; the face of ludicrous and awkward sorrow with which this was related by Hughoc, the herd-boy, amused Burns so much, who was on his way to the plough, that he immediately composed the poem, and repeated it to his brother Gilbert when they met in the evening; the field where the poet held the plough, and the ditch into which poor Mailie fell, are still pointed out.” - Allan Cunningham, “The Complete Works of Robret Burns”, 1871.

The text can be found at http://www.robertburns.org/works/28.shtml

Danny Letham

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