Allan Ramsay, though a major poet on any showing, can scarcely claim to rank among Scotland’s greatest; but undoubtedly he is one of the most influential figures in the country’s literary history. His life and work, as poet and anthologist, active propagandist for literature and the arts in Scotland ,and an energetic participant in Edinburgh’s lively intellectual scene, provided a focus for the incipient revival in Scottish poetry and in particular to writing in the Scots tongue; and his enormously popular work not only was a direct inspiration to successive poets throughout the eighteenth century (most notably Alexander Ross, Robert Fergusson and Robert Burns) but established several fashions in poetry which have remained influential even to the present.
Ramsay was born in the
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Citation: McClure, J. Derrick. "Allan Ramsay". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3702, accessed 16 April 2024.]
