The Plaque reads:Robert Burns1759-1796To a Mountain Daisy 1786
Wee, modest crimson-tipped flow’r,
Thou’s met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow’r,
Thou bonie gem.
This plaque donated by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco May 1979
A campaign to have a statue of Robert Burns in San Francisco was started by John McGilvray in 1905.
The required cash was raised and Melvin Earl Cummings (whose grandparents were born in Scotland) was commissioned to produce the figure. Cummings modelled a standing figure of the poet which was then sent to the De Rome Foundry in San Francisco for casting. Sadly, the foundry and its entire contents were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and the fire.
The rebuilding of the city took precedence and the project was put on hold until 1907. Cummings had to start from the beginning, however the model and casting were finished by the end of the year and the statue was unveiled in Golden Gate Park on Washington’s birthday, February 22, 1908.
The statue itself is eleven feet high and stands on a pedestal of Californian granite nine feet high. The statue is off JFK Drive near the Rhododendron Grove.
Love it and I’m glad they added the plaque.
Is Robert himself copper? She guessed from the beautiful green patina.
It’s good to celebrate poets and poetry!
I can’t imagine the statue is already 104 years-old and is still in fine shape.
A monument to timlessness.
It’s always nice to see a statue that honors a poet and his/her work. Mostly warriors are honored which is sometimes appropriate but it seems we’d rather glorify war than intellect.
Thus it is and always has been and probably always will be. The football hero gets the girl and the nerd becomes an object of derision.
Or so I’ve been told. 🙂
A wonderful, lasting tribute! Thank you for sharing on ‘Weekly Top Shot.’ I hope you’ll come share again next week…
I see this one regularly.