Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was a Scottish poet and songwriter, who is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and the best known poet to have ever written in the Scots language. Burns, however, was much more than just a hero to Scotsmen; he wrote frequently in English and in an English/Scots dialect, making his poems accessible to a wide audience and ensuring his enduring fame. He was a vigorous social and political critic, becoming a champion for the causes of civil and economic equity for all people after witnessing his father's miserable struggles through poverty. From humble origins and meager education, Burns has become an icon of an impoverished member of the working class rising to intellectual grandeur. By way of his political attitudes and his championing of the working-classes, Burns was also an early pioneer of the Romantic movement that was to sweep Europe in the decades following his death, though he lived well before the term "Romantic" would carry such a connotation.
