Is it because he was an awesome philanderer, or despite it, that Burns' understanding of love seems so acute? When he writes, as he often does, of melancholic partings, or the bittersweet victory of love in the battle against age and fate, he rises above the sentimental and presents us with a truth recognisable to everyone who knows what love is.

Peter Capaldi - Actor

Text © Peter Capaldi

other images -

Though Cruel Fate should bid us part
....Far as the pole and line
Her dear idea round my heart
...Should tenderly entwine.

Though mountains rise, and deserts howl,
...And oceans roar between;
Yet dearer than my deathless soul
...I still would love my Jean.

Robert Burns