Robert Burns | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 24 pages of analysis & critique of Robert Burns.
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Robert Burns | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 24 pages of analysis & critique of Robert Burns.
This section contains 7,096 words
(approx. 24 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Frederick L. Beaty

SOURCE: "Burns's Comedy of Romantic Love," in PMLA, Vol. 83, No. 2, May, 1968, pp. 429-38.

In the essay below, Beaty assesses the humorous aspects of Burns's love poetry.

The eighteenth-century adaptation of sentiment to comedy, as well as the Scottish vernacular tradition, afforded Robert Burns ample precedent for his humorous love poetry. He was obviously interested in examining the comic spirit, as random comments in his letters indicate; yet he apparently elaborated no critical manifesto of his own to explain his practice. Perhaps because he was often regarded as an inspired but untaught genius who succeeded without conscious artistry, influential critics of the early nineteenth century usually looked not to him for illustrations of their comic theories but rather to Jean Paul Richter, who had obligingly translated his own precepts into creative examples. Not until after many of the speculations about humor had crystallized into definite concepts could Burns's achievement...

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This section contains 7,096 words
(approx. 24 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Frederick L. Beaty
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Critical Essay by Frederick L. Beaty from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.