This fine window was presented to Irvine Old Parish Church by Irvine Burns Club, to commemorate the bicentenary of the poet's death, in the building where he worshipped while in Irvine.

The Robert Burns Bicentenary Window
- the artist and the design

Finding comfort in the Bible at a time of crisis, Robert Burns wrote a verse paraphrase of the 1st Psalm, which describes the righteous man as "like a tree planted by the rivers of water". The stone at lower left bears the first three verses of his paraphrase (which we also print further down this page).

The setting is the Scottish landscape - the tree growing beside a stream, "clear as crystal" (Rev. 22, 1); the image of "a falling crystal stream" is one to which the poet frequently returned.

The artist is Susan Bradbury, FMGP. Susan first came to Ayrshire as Irvine New Town artist in 1981, and works, both on new commissions such as for the Ayrshire Hospice and RAF Lossiemouth, and on restoring old stained glass, from the Stained Glass Partnership in a converted church in Kilmaurs. She was delighted to be invited to create this window for the Parish Church of the town which was so important at the start of her career.

Susan chose the colours of autumn - green, gold and brown - the warm golden-orange of a bracken-covered hillside, the grey-gold mixes of lichens on stonework. The gold links visually to the golden cornfields in the neighbouring Ruth and Boaz window to the left. The blue sky creates a positive sunny atmosphere, and provides a link with the Trades window to the right. The sparkle in the stream is achieved by differing textures of clear glass, and the sunlight through the leaves by differing degrees of acid-etching of the top green layer of the special glass used here.

The stream and tree are also the River of Life and the Tree of Life of Rev. 22 (1-2, 14,17); it "bare twelve manner of fruits"; the artist has chosen grapes, a pomegranate, fig, orange, lemon, olive, date, apple, pear, cherries, plums and hazelnuts. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" makes us recall Burns' expression of brotherhood in " A man's a man for a' that".

Burns twice referred to Rev. 7, 15-17, which promises a much better life in the hereafter. The Lamb at the throne of God will lead those that serve God "unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes". The 22-year old Robert told his father how these verses inspired him, and, nine years later, in a letter to Peter Hill, his Edinburgh agent and friend, he wrote that, if he could, he would "wipe away all tears from all eyes". These verses are on the stone at lower right, and are printed at the foot of this page.

The stone tablets, with their balancing Old and New Testament texts, could be the golden gates of the entrance to heaven (Rev. 22,14: "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates to the city"); they could also be standing stones forming an invitation to walk righteously by a crystal stream.

The window thus combines rich visual images of the natural world with symbolic links to beautiful passages of Scripture and to the life and works of Robert Burns.

back to top - scroll down for the texts included in the design

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