The sixth annual Robert Burns Supper is happening this weekend at Texas Tech University. Father Edson Way is the guest on this episode of the Front Row to share more information.
Tell us about your association with the supper.
I’m of Scottish ancestry on my mother’s side, which is the origin of my interest in such things. I’ve always been interested in literature and poetry and Robert Burns is one of my favorites, maybe my absolute favorite. He is basically dating from the late 18th century, the 1700s and is noted as a romantic poet and some of his best known works are his love poems to the various ladies in his life in his short 37 years.
But he was also something of a social and potentially political radical. Some of his poetry addresses those issues in terms of equality between peoples. He was subject to the Landon Aristocracy. His father was a poor farmer. He failed at farming himself because the landlords were so usurious of the people. Ultimately he went to work as a tax collector, basically working for the British government that was oppressing the people at that time. That’s one of the many complexities of the man’s life, that he would take a government job when he disapproved of the work that the government did in his day.
How did Lubbock get started in the tradition of having a Robert Burns Supper?
Some years ago, the English department at Texas Tech had a Robert Burns Supper. It was a fairly small, low-key affair. It was very traditional in what it offered. When it sort of died out, the chair of the English department said, “we all just got old and tired.” And so they finally disbanded it. Then a painter of Scottish decent in Lubbock, the last piper in his family was in the Southeastern United States around 1840 and so he wanted to bring a piping tradition back.
…He decided it was time to start the Robert Burns Supper again…
Listen to the full interview at the top of the article.
