Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.

He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. The Clydesdale Bank's notes were redesigned in 2009 and since then he has been pictured on the front of their £10 note. Meanwhile in November 1790 he had written "Tam O' Shanter".

As well as making original compositions Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland often revising or adapting them. Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Robbie BurnsRabbie Burns Scotland's favourite son the Ploughman Poet Robden of Solway Firth the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as The Bard) was a Scottish poet and lyricist. 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 and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world.