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Robert Burns

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Poet

The Resume

    (January 25, 1759-July 21, 1796)
    Wrote 'Tam O'Shanter,' 'Holy Willie's Prayer,' 'Address to a Haggis,' 'Auld Lang Syne,' 'A Man's a Man for A' That,' 'My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose,' 'To a Mouse' and 'Epistle to a Young Friend'

Why he might be annoying:

    He cheated on his wife many times.
    He fathered several illegitimate children.
    He was twice arrested and found guilty of fornication.
    Some say he drank himself to death, or died of a nasty STD.
    He wrote a poem about haggis, a nauseating Scottish sausage made out of sheep guts.
    He wrote his poems in the incomprehensible Scottish dialect.
    One of his poem contains the lines: 'They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit, Till ilka carlin swat and reekit, And coost her duddies to the wark, and linket at it in her sark!'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He grew up poor.
    His wife knew about his girlfriends and didn't care.
    He brought intelligence and satire to the lowly drinking-song form.
    He set many of his poems to music.
    He loved mocking the religious hypocrites in his town.
    He wrote 'Auld Lang Syne,' which is still sung on New Year's Eve.
    Even when his poems became famous, he couldn't get a well-paying job, because everybody wanted to think of him as a 'simple country peasant,' not a businessman.
    Scholars believe he actually died of a heart condition caused by the heavy work he did as a farm child.

Credit: Wieland Kalligaro


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 135 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 103 Votes: 53.40% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 132 Votes: 50.76% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 20 Votes: 45.00% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 25 Votes: 64.00% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 93 Votes: 47.31% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 37 Votes: 59.46% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 91 Votes: 59.34% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 145 Votes: 49.66% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 220 Votes: 48.18% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 82 Votes: 51.22% Annoying