Robert Burns is perhaps Scotland’s foremost cultural icon, and is the world’s most widely celebrated poet. Sometimes his fame - and his face on all those teatowels - stands in the way of an appreciation of the sheer scope of his genius. Although occasionally derided by ignorant and unthinking persons as doggerel , Burns’s poetry contains great depths of humanity, philosophy, humour and rare beauty. Kenneth Simpson’s SCOTNOTE study guide provides students with a brief and authoritative introduction to Robert Burns, his life and his work.