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
Daiches is an English critic. In the following excerpt, he offers a chronological discussion of Fergusson's poetry, with a view to describing the poet's artistic development.
On 7 Feb...
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, McKenzie discusses Fergusson's satirical verse epistle, "To the Principal and Professors of the University of St Andrews on their Superb Treat to Samuel Johnson...
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 ...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Freeman discusses Fergusson's defense of Scottish traditions that were threatened by radical social change during the eighteenth century, observing that his poems oppo...
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, Courthope briefly summarizes Fergusson's poetic achievement, focusing on his use of the Scots vernacular.
Fergusson, like Ramsay, wrote both in literary English and...
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
In the following excerpt, Bell offers an overview of Fergusson 's life and career and comments on some of the poems that established the poet's reputation.
Robert Fergusson, the Scott...
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
A Scottish critic and educator, Grierson was considered a leading authority on Milton, Donne, and Scott. In the following excerpt from A Critical History of English Poetry, originally published in 194...
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
In the following excerpt, MacLaine offers an overview of the Scots poetic tradition and discusses Fergusson's place in the Scots poetic revival of the eighteenth century, summarizing his achiev...
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