Robert Fergusson Summary

Robert Fergusson was born in Edinburgh on 5 September 1750, the fourth child of William and Elizabeth Forbes Fergusson, who had moved to that city from rural Aberdeen a few years earlier. His father, ... Read more

In the following excerpt, MacArthur briefly discusses Fergusson's strengths and weaknesses as a poet and compares his work with that of Robert Burns. In our estimate of Fergusson's po... Read more

In the following excerpt, O'Brien discusses Fergusson's satirical use of neoclassical conventions in his pastoral verse. Modern criticism of Scots literature has provided us with many... Read more

In the following excerpt, Freeman discusses the political views that influenced Fergusson's poetry, characterizing Fergusson as a resolute Scots Tory, Jacobite and nationalist who was often &#x... Read more

In the following excerpt, Kinghorn praises Fergusson's use of language, and asserts that the poet's critical reception was impeded during his lifetime by widespread prejudice against the... Read more

In the following excerpt, Douglas discusses the artistic temperament evidenced by Fergusson's life and poetry. It was in 1771, at the age of twenty, that [Fergusson] contributed his English ... Read more

Roy is a Scottish critic and educator. In the following excerpt, he argues that Fergusson's critical reception was impeded by his use of satire and traditional Scottish dialect during "a... Read more

MacLaine is a Canadian critic who specializes in Scottish poetry. In the following excerpt, he discusses Fergusson's description of eighteenth-century Edinburgh in "Auld Reikie," ... Read more

An English critic, Kinghorn is widely considered an authority on Scottish poetry. In the following excerpt, he and Law, a Scottish writer who co-edited with Kinghorn The Works of Allan Ramsay (1961-74... Read more