Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Death: 21st July 1796
Location: Burns Mausoleum, St. Michael's Churchyard, Dumfries, Scotland
Cause of Death: Bacterial Endocarditis / Rheumatic Heart Disease
Photo taken by: MSDMSD
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Scottish poet and lyricist who is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. His poetry draws upon his knowledge of Classical, Biblical and English Literature. He wrote not only in the Scots language but also in the Scottish English dialect of the English language.
He influenced William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The novelist John Steinbeck took the title of his 1937 novel Of Mice and Men from a line contained in To a Mouse: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men". J. D. Salinger used protagonist Holden Caulfield's misinterpretation of Burns' poem Comin' Through the Rye as his title and a main interpretation of Holden's grasping to his childhood in his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. The poem, actually about a rendezvous, is thought by Holden to be about saving people from falling out of childhood.

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