Robert Burns

Robert Burns (January 25, 1759  to July 21, 1796), often referred to affectionately as Robbie Burns or Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet, and lyricist.

Biography
Robert Burns was born in Alloway in the south-west Scottish county of Ayrshire on January 25, 1759. He was the first of the seven children of tenant farmer William Burnes, and Agnes Broun. He attended Dalrymple Parish School for a short while but was largely educated by his father and other private tutors. He began working as a farm laborer at a young age. The strenuous physical work which he did permanently damaged his health. Burns first known poem "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass" was written in 1775 when he was 15.

In 1786, Burns was offered a job as an accountant on a slave plantation in Jamaica. Not being able to afford to pay for his passage to Jamaica, Burns was advised to raise money by having a volume of his poetry published. The first edition of his Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was published on July 31, 1786 and was an immediate success. Instead of emigrating to Jamaica, Burns moved to Edinburgh and settled comfortably into the city's literary society.

Burns returned to his home county of Ayrshire in 1788 and took up farming again, although he also continued to write poetry. In 1791, he sold his farm, moved to the neighboring county of Dumfries and Galloway and settled in the town of Dumfries. He contributed to collections of Scottish folk songs and popular songs, often altering and expanding the lyrics of the songs and writing new lyrics to already existing tunes.

It has been suggested that Burns suffered from manic depression, alcoholism and a rheumatic heart condition. His ill health left him looking prematurely aged. Burns died on July 21, 1796 at the age of 37. He was originally buried under a simple gravestone in St. Michael's Churchyard, Dumfries but his body was moved to the Burns Mausoleum in the same cemetery in September 1815.

Burns married Jean Armour in 1788 but is also known to have had relationships with Elizabeth Patron, Mary Campbell, Agnes McLehose, Jenny Clow and Margaret Cameron. He fathered a total of twelve children.