Robert Burns’s versed epistles

Robert Burns wrote a number of poetic letters, such as Epistle to John Rankie, Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet, Epistle to John Lapraik, An Old Scottish Bard, To William Simpson, and others. Versed epistles, although practiced by poets of various epochs, is a typically neo-classical genre connected with Horatian tradition, and followed by A. Pope. It was part of aristocratic courtly culture and an elegant way of presenting a didactic or even satirical purpose, but also a powerful tool for manipulating public opinion. This paper examines the ways in which Robert Burns used those conventions and created his own rhetorical style, using parody, grotesque, speaking at times on behalf of the “public” or in a plural sort of voice, but in the end creating a free individual poetic personality similar to that of G. G. Byron in the Romantic way of composing motifs and registers of language.