32 pages • 1 hour read
Robert BurnsTam O’Shanter
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1791A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope (1712)
Burns, familiar with this iconic mock-epic from a generation earlier, uses its sense of faux-drama and tragic-comic action to recreate a similar feeling in which elevated diction and familiar formal techniques are used to skewer the behavior of characters decidedly un-heroic in their actions. In recreating a card game in which the young and comely Belinda is plotted against—in an effort to snip a locket of her hair by a callow suitor, identified only as the Baron—Pope mocks the pretentions of court life.
“Halloween” by Robert Burns (1786)
Written about the same time as “Tam O’Shanter,” this loving tribute to the Scottish fondness for All Hallows Eve celebrates the kind of apparitions that have become a hallmark of Scottish national literature. A long poem by Burns’ standards, the poem is cased in the same Gaelic Scot dialect as ‘Tam O’Shanter” and depicts with tongue-in-cheek hyperseriousness the reality of a succession of wraiths and ghosts.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820)
Irving long acknowledged his literary debt to the folk tales of Europe and the United Kingdom in crafting his own tales of the dark, but few so clearly reflect that influence as this tale of the schoolteacher Ichabod Crane who collides with the Headless Horseman, a ghostly relic of the Hessian army who fought in the American Revolution. The story mirrors several elements of Tam’s story, save that in the end Irving quietly hints that the Headless Horsemen, unlike the witches and warlocks that chase Tam, might be easily explained away.
Further Literary Resources
“‘Tam O’Shanter’: An Interpretation” by Kenneth White (1990)
A milestone revisiting of Burns’ comic epic, the article suggests that the poem is much more than a fantasy story full of action and centered on a boisterous, if likeable anit-hero. The article uses Burns’ association with the project cataloguing Scottish folk tales to suggest the important figure in the poem is not the inebriated farmer at all but the narrator. Acting in the position of a traditional shaman, the narrator helps make sense of the supernatural elements and offers a cautionary note not to get involved with forces that cannot be explained.
“A New Dimension for ‘Tam O’Shanter’” by M. L. Mackenzie (2013)
Still considered the go-to re-evaluation of Burns’ narrative that moved it away from the genre of the supernatural and into the formidable genre of the mock-epic, the article traces out the similarities between Burns’ poem and Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, an influential work that Burns knew and frequently cited in his letters, particularly the use of an anti-hero and the ironic use of an anticlimax.
“Tam O’Shanter and Aesthetic Cultural Nationalists” by Gerard Lee McKeever (2016)
A fascinating look into the ways in which Burns shaped his ne’er-do-well farmer using elements of the Scottish character that date to the earliest expression of the nation’s stories, folk tales, and ballads. The article examines how the character became, in turn, one of the model characters to showcase the qualities of the Scottish character for an international readership, particularly the fondness for friendship, the need for freedom, the love of storytelling, the belief in the supernatural, and the willingness to take risks.
Listen to the Poem
Delivered by Scottish film actor Bryan McCormack in the original brogue of the Gaelic Scottish,”The Ultimate Tam O’Shanter” captures the sweet lilt of the Scottish dialect and the dramatic intonations of the rising action and includes lively animation to match the unfolding story. A suggestion: read the poem in its standard English translation first, then, with the Scottish text in hand, watch and listen to this version, and then attempt to engage the dialect. The full music of Burns’ dialect poetry will be heard.
Related Titles
By Robert Burns
