Burns and Wollstonecraft

 Robert Burns was “a democrat and religious radical.”  He was a careful craftsman and debater.  He wrote works of satire, epistles, and mock-heroic very far from Alexander Pope’s.  He was described as a “songwriter for all English-speaking people.” 

            Mary Wollstonecraft had a rough childhood, where her father was an abusive drunk. Her friend died, and her school failed.  These events haunted her life. She “rallied her energies to write her first book.”  She was suicidal when she was convinced her lover was going to leave her and died giving birth to her daughter, Mary Shelley who was the author of Frankenstein.  After her death, her husband published a memoir revealing her past and published the letters she wrote.  She connected to women and people with similar backgrounds.