The Immortal Memory

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 5

The Immortal Memory

(By tht Rev. ANGUS MacLEOD) ' The Burns Supper season has come round again. For those readers ignorant of such matters I should give a description of the proceedings. There are still those who link Burns with drink and , women rather than with poetry and wonder what goes on at these mysterious “Suppers.” The basic ingredient of the Burns Supper is a haggis to which a .poem is recited (“Fair fa* your- honest sonsy face, great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race!”). After this the haggis is disembowelled and eaten. It is accompanied by champit neeps (turnip) and bashed tatties (potatoes) and year by year this uninspiring • mixture is eaten with courage by affluent Scots the world over who (although they would never utter this heresy) would far rather be having roast lamb and mint sauce. There are two essential speeches:? the “Immortal Memory”—a dissertation on the poetry and/or career of Robert. Burns—and to “The Lassies,” which varies from a long string of jokes to an enlightening estimate of Burns’s love poetry.

Finally between the eating and the speechifying there are numerous songs and recitations. This., may sound a very innocuous mixture, far removed from the wild drunken orgies' sassenachs fondly imagine Burns Suppers to be. And indeed, for the most part, these suppers are well conducted affairs with a high standard of speech and song. . What then is their attraction? There may be polite and serious literary societies to boost the fame of Shakespeare and other idols, but this annual social gathering celebrating the birthday of Robert Burns is something unique. The fact that most of those who go cannot sing or recite more than a line or two of the works of Burns of, even understand his language makes it all the more extraordinary. The cynic might say it is just another example of the clannish spirit of the Scots. But it is more than that. These suppers gather around this one man Robert Burns and no other poet. Why Burns? Party because of the sheer quality of his poetry but more because he appeals to that instinct in all of us to support the underdog.

Burns was a ploughman who for a little while rose above the poverty which held down so many of his contemporaries. He expressed in vivid verse their deepest feelings. But poverty and ill' health in the end dragged him down to the grave at the age of 37. Generations of poor Scots, have always had a warm fellow feeling for this man. His radicalism and contempt of hypocrisy still make a strong appeal. He represents the cry of the poor for justice and it is worth remembering that his poem “Scots wha hac”was written not just to glorify Scotland but was Burns’s., subtle method of expressing his sympathy for the French Revolution. Burns was a protester whose medium happened to be poetry. No current political speech has a message more relevant than: “Then let us tpray that come it may. And come it will for a' thaij. That man to man the world . o’er Shall brothers be for a* that.” So despite the neeps and haggis, and the tragedy of his story, once again I shall be joining the Burns tans and rising to the “Immortal Memory.”