The Scotch poet was born at Alloway in Ayrshire, where his father
cultivated a small farm. He was the eldest of seven children. Before
he was eight years old the family removed to Mt. Oliphant, and later to
Lochlea. Here, in 1784, the father died, worn out with incessant toil,
which ended only in disappointment. The family were so poor that
Robert was obliged to work hard even when very young, and at fifteen he
was his father's chief helper. In later years he described his life at
Mt. Oliphant as combining "the cheerless gloom of a hermit with the
unceasing moil of a galley slave." But poets are given to
exaggeration, and doubtless the attractive picture of home life which
he afterwards painted in the _Cotter's Saturday Night_ is true in the
main of the life in his father's cottage.

In his father, Burns was most fortunate, for he was a man of strict
integrity, and strong religious faith. The education of his children
was, in his judgment, so important that when they were unable to attend
school he taught them himself, notwithstanding his exhausting labors on
the farm. The family as a whole were fond of reading. Among their
books the poet mentions certain plays of Shakespeare, Pope's
works,--including his translation of Homer,--the _Spectator_, Allan
Ramsay's writings, and several volumes on religious and philosophical
subjects. Probably in this list the Bible should stand first. He
himself studied the art of verse-making in a collection of songs. He
says: "I pored over them, driving my cart or walking to labor, song by
song, carefully noting the true tender or sublime from affectation or
fustian. I am convinced that I owe to this practice much of my
critic-craft, such as it is!" His first song, composed when he was
fifteen, was inspired by a young girl who worked at his side in the
harvest field.