{\b Robert Tannahill}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 3 June 1774

{\b Date of Death}.: 16 May 1810

{\b Works}.

Scottish lyrical poet. His collection called Poems and Songs (1807) was very 
popular. One of his songs, 'The Flower o' Dumbrane' (1808) was set to music by 
the composer and musician R A Smith. His best song is 'Loudon's Bonnis Woods 
and Braes, although also well known are 'The Bonnie Wood o' Craiglea', 'The 
Braes of Gleniffer', and 'Gloomy Winter's Now Awa'. He studied the work of 
Ramsay, Fergusson and Burns, and is considered second only to Burns for the 
popularity of his works.  

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Braes of Balquhither', 'The Flower O' Dumblane', 'The Midges Dance Aboon 
the Burn', 'Gloomy Winter's Now Awa''.

{\b General Comment}.

Born in Paisley in the west of Scotland, he was educated at The English School 
and began work as a weaver at age twelve. Work as a weaver was well paid 
enough to allow Tannahill to develop himself through private study. It was at 
this time that he first began to write, influenced in part by a failed romance 
with a local girl. Some of his work appeared in the Glasgow Courier. 

At age twenty six he left with his brother for Bolton, Lancashire, where their 
money soon ran out. In desperation they were about to join the Royal Navy when 
they met a man from Paisley in a public house. They were offered work and 
remained there for two years. Tannahill returned to Paisley when his father 
became gravely ill and remained there, after his father's death, to care for 
his mother. 

Tannahill then took a risk and privately financed the publication of nine 
hundred copies of  The Soldier's Return; A Scottish Interlude in Two Acts, 
with other Poems and Songs, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1805-07). More 
commonly known as Poems and Songs, this work brought Tannahill immediate 
success and popularity, but with success and a wider social circle came an 
increased propensity for alcohol and a consequent depression over wasted time 
and finances. Tannahill's problems were compounded when an Edinburgh 
publisher, Constable, returned a manuscript unopened: they led finally to his 
suicide by drowning.