Overview

Scottish poet Robert Burns’ works are known and loved wherever the English language is read. Burns touched with his own genius the traditional folk songs of Scotland, transmuting them into great poetry, and he immortalized its countryside and humble farm life. He was a keen and discerning satirist who reserved his sharpest barbs for sham, hypocrisy, and cruelty. His satirical verse, once little appreciated, has in recent decades been recognized widely as his finest work. He was also a master of the verse-narrative technique, as exemplified in Tam O’Shanter. His love songs, perfectly fitted to the tunes for which he wrote them, are, at their best, unsurpassed.