''The Cotter's Saturday Night'' is a poem by

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

that was first published in '' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect'' in

1786 Events January–March * January 3 – The third Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the United States and the Choctaw. * January 6 – The outward bound East Indiaman '' Halsewell'' is wrecked on the south coast of Englan ...

Composition

Burns wrote "The Cotter's Saturday Night" at his Mossgiel farm, near Mauchline, during the winter of 1785-86. He adopted the lengthy

Spenserian stanza The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem ''The Faerie Queene'' (1590–96). Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single ' alexandrine' line in iamb ...

form from Robert Fergusson's similarly themed 1773 poem "The Farmer's Ingle" to allow space to evoke his pastoral scene. An extract from another major influence,

Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, and classics, classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College. He is widely ...

's "

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'' is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742 ...

", is used as an epigraph. The poem is dedicated to Robert Aiken, a successful

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

lawyer who was Burns's patron at the time, and the opening stanza addresses him in advancing the poem's sentimental theme.

Summary

On a cold Saturday evening in November, a Scottish cotter—a peasant farmer who labours in return for the right to live in a cottage—returns home to his family ahead of the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

. His wife and numerous children gather round the fire to share their news, while he gives out fatherly advice and admonition based on

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

teachings. A boy from a neighbouring farm comes to call on the cotter's oldest daughter. The cotter's wife is pleased to see that the boy is not a rake and truly loves her daughter, and the cotter welcomes him into his home. The family then eat supper, after which they gather round the fire again as the cotter reads aloud from the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and the family sing hymns—Burns compares the family's humble devotions favourably with "Religion's pride"—before the oldest children return to their homes and the rest of the family go to bed. The poem concludes by eulogising the morality of such family life and how it does credit to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Legacy

"The Cotter's Saturday Night" has inspired numerous works of art and literature. The Scottish painter John Faed produced a series of illustrations featuring scenes from the poem, some of which were subsequently engraved by William Miller. Scenes from the poem also inspired paintings by David Wilkie and

William Kidd William Kidd (c. 1645 – 23 May 1701), also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish-American privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in N ...

, and William Allan's painting of Burns writing the poem was subsequently engraved by John Burnet.

Bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

panels featuring scenes from the poem adorn a number of statues of Robert Burns, including: George Edwin Ewing's statue in

George Square George Square () is the principal Town square, civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, Glasgow, Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, St Andrew's ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

; Charles Calverley's statue in Washington Park, Albany, New York; and George Anderson Lawson's statue in Victoria Park, Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

. The title of the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

-nominated novel '' From Scenes Like These'' by Gordon Williams ironically quotes the opening line of the poem's nineteenth stanza.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotter's Saturday Night, The 1786 poems Poetry by Robert Burns Scots-language works