Robert Burns: The Works of Robert Burns

The most celebrated of all Scottish poets, Burns is remembered with great devotion and frequently not a little emotion on his birthday, 25th January, by Scots and many others the world over. Born in 1759 into miserable rustic poverty, by the age of 18 Burns had acquired a good knowledge of both classical and English literature. His first collection of verse, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, appeared in June 1786 to huge popular acclaim from all classes of society and included To a Mouse and The Cotter's Saturday Night. His later poems and ballads include Auld Lang Syne, the beautiful song My Love is like a Red Red Rose, Highland Mary, Scots Wha Hae and his masterpiece, Tam o' Shanter.