Central Park In Bronze

Location: 66th Street, mid-Park

Artist/Designer: Sir John Steell

Materials: Bronze, granite, brick 

Installation: 1880

Funding: Scottish-Americans

 

At the south end of Central Park's Mall, this companion piece to the statue of Sir Walter Scott, done by the same sculptor, depicts the cherished poet in a contemplative mood. Burns is shown with a plough at his feet (a symbol of his farming past) and a poem to his lost love, Mary Campbell.

 

As a Scottish national hero, Burns' poetry captured the spirit of the nation. According to the Scottish Poetry Library, “the language he was most fluent in wasn’t so much Scots or English – it was the language of the heart.” We see this in the following poem:

 

Epitaph on my Own Friend

An honest man here lies at rest,

As e’er God with His image blest:

The friend of man, the friend of truth;

The friend of age, and guide of youth:

Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,

Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;

If there is none, he made the best of this.