Comparing Versions of Burns' "Dedication" and "The Vision"

Conclusion

Although Burns was born and raised in Scotland, his bicultural Scottish and English literary identity can be seen through the balance he struck between utilizing both Scottish and English vocabulary. The lack of substantial changes needed for speakers of English to understand his pieces shows the influence English literature and culture played on his community despite having a strong Scottish oral tradition.
     The “Dedication” for his 1787 edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect demonstrates this clearly, as no words were amended or glossed in the 2009 compilation of Burns’ works titled The Best Laid Schemes: Selected Poetry and Prose of Robert Burns. In this later version, however, “The Vision” features many Scottish words that are heavily glossed, and several stanzas have been removed. Still, without that gloss, it is still an arguably comprehensible poem for English speakers and readers. 
     This comparison of multiple versions of Burns' writing demonstrates that once written down and published, preserving poetic tradition — and, more broadly, literary tradition — proves more feasible.