Regarded by many as one of the very greatest of the Romantic poets, Robert Burns was also among the most intriguing figures of his age.

Widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and celebrated worldwide, he is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language. Scarcely any known author has succeeded so brilliantly in combining his work with folk material, or in carrying on with such continuity of spirit the tradition of popular song.

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism.

Celebration of his life and work became something of a national tradition during the 19th and 20th centuries, for it seemed to his admirers that Burns had changed the literary universe.

His poetry was highly distinctive, adopting a multitude of rhythms, images, forms, and personae; his greatness stemming from his sense that his work was an exploration of art's power to bring solace and meaning to human suffering.

From joy and strife to the intimate and intense, Burns breathed new vigor into poetry by drawing lucid and often startling metaphors from the world in which he lived.

This new 21st century digital collection of Burn's verse, selected and edited by Philip Dossick, provides many valuable insights into his poetic genius.

ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796) is more than Scotland's national poet. Along with William Shakespeare, Burns is an icon for the UK and Scotland: a national symbol.  Over the course of his short life, he honed a raw talent into a brilliant poetic maturity. By the end of his brief career, he had written poems of such beauty, imagination and generosity of spirit, that he had fulfilled his wish that he might someday ‘be among the pantheon of poets after my death’.