Bloomsbury Poetry Classics are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic and biographer Ian Hamilton. Robert Burns was born in 1759. Some of his best known poems include Auld Langs Syne, Holy Willie's Prayer and The Jolly Beggars. Even during his lifetime he was viewed as a kind of Scottish Poet Laureate and he has been immortalised with the celebration of Burns night. He died in 1796.