Burns, Robert

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Burns, Robert (1759–96) Scottish poet. The success of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786), which includes “The Holy Fair” and “To a Mouse”, enabled Burns to move to Edinburgh, where he was admired as “the heaven-taught ploughman”. Although popular, he could not support himself from his poetry and so became an excise officer. Scotland's unofficial national poet, his works include “Tam o'Shanter” (1790) and the song “Auld Lang Syne”. An annual Burns Night is held on his birthday, January 25.

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