page_title: Tam o' Shanter (poem)
section_title: Cultural depictions
hierarchical_section_title: Tam o' Shanter (poem) / Cultural depictions
caption_attribution_description: English: Tam O’Shanter’s Ride, Robbie Burns Statue, Halifax, Nova Scotia
context_page_description: "Tam o' Shanter" is a narrative poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1790, while living in Dumfries. First published in 1791, at 228 lines it is one of Burns' longer poems, and employs a mixture of Scots and English.
  The poem describes the habits of Tam, a farmer who often gets drunk with his friends in a public house in the Scottish town of Ayr, and his thoughtless ways, specifically towards his wife, who is waiting at home for him, angry. At the conclusion of one such late-night revel after a market day, Tam rides home on his horse Meg while a storm is brewing. On the way he sees the local haunted church lit up, with witches and warlocks dancing and the Devil playing the bagpipes. He is still drunk, still upon his horse, just on the edge of the light, watching, amazed to see the place bedecked with many gruesome things such as gibbet irons and knives that had been used to commit murders and other macabre artifacts. The witches are dancing as the music intensifies and, upon seeing one particularly wanton witch in a short dress he loses his reason and shouts, 'Weel done, cutty-sark!'.
context_section_description: The Tam o' Shanter cap is named after the poem.
  Lady Ada Lovelace named her beloved if "very wild and ... quite vicious" stallion Tom O'Shanter.
  George Métivier published Tam au Sabbat, a Guernésiais version of Burns' poem, in La Gazette de Guernesey in 1855. This version was included in his collection Fantaisies guernesiaises in 1866.
  In 1899, the town of Barre, Vermont erected a memorial to Burns in local granite, including a panel depicting a scene from the poem.
  In 1915, the American composer George Whitefield Chadwick completed a symphonic poem inspired by the poem.
  In 1955, British composer Malcolm Arnold's Overture Op. 51a was named "Tam o' Shanter" after Burns' poem.
  In the 1990s, Scottish figurative painter Alexander Goudie worked at a cycle of 54 large format paintings dedicated to Robert Burns' poem, currently displayed at Rozelle House Galleries, near Burns' home at Alloway, Ayrshire.
  The Tam O' Shanter Urban Cottage on Bidston Hill, Wirral, Merseyside was named after the poem in 1837 after being built beyond a stream which was said to repel witches. It attracts both Robert Burns fans and local witches and Wicca historians.
  The Tam O'Shanter Inn in Glendale, California was named after the Robert Burns poem and was established in 1922 by the Van de Kamp bakery family. As of 2017, it is Los Angeles' oldest restaurant operated by the same family in the same location. It was Walt Disney's favorite restaurant.
  "The Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden is loosely based on the poem.
   Tamfest in Ayr, which honours Tam O'Shanter, is one of Britain’s largest festivals dedicated to a fictional character. The festival was founded in 2015 by musician and events organiser Meredith McCrindle and has breathed life into Ayr’s town centre with a host of family-friendly shows and interactive sessions in art, craft, and drama. Typically, the festival centres around Halloween, perhaps a natural parallel given the atmosphere created by the poem and the fate of its protagonist. Past events have included recitals by actress Karen Dunbar, an original Burns theatre production at The Gaiety Theatre in Ayr starring BAFTA winner Iain Robertson, and a popular parade that has attracted up to 8000 people to Ayr’s town centre.
caption: Tam O’Shanter's Ride, Robbie Burns Statue, Victoria Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia
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