ABSTRACT
The most famous words of commentary upon any labouring-class poet remain those written by William Wordsworth in his poem 'Resolution and Independence'. 'Resolution and Independence' is by no means unique in its misapprehension of Robert Burns: no other British poet has been so frequently and variously claimed for posterity, and the questions of his social class, political affiliation and even sexuality have been persistently disputed by critics and biographers. A radical Burns comes to the fore in Janowitz's examination of how the Romantic Lyric came to be identified, almost exclusively, with a Wordsworthian model of solitary musing. The poem which most effectively reconciles Burns's interest in both the sufferings and the joys of rural life remained unpublished in his lifetime: The Jolly Beggars; or Tatterdemallions. From the moment of Burns's death, supporters and critics took sharply different positions in identifying his precise social rank and its significance for his writing.
