Robert Burns is more than Scotland's national poet. He is also a symbol of national identity for Scotland. He was born in Alloway on 25th January in 1759 and was the oldest son of seven children. His family were poor farmers, and led a frugal, demanding life. By his mid-twenties, Burns was an accomplished writer of verse, and his first volume of poems - "Poetry, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect", was published to great acclaim in 1786. Burns' work shows wit, irony, romanticism and sentiment. It also shows bawdy humor and a capacity for compassion and feeling for his fellow man. He was known also for his almost indiscriminate admiration for women. He died on 21 July 1796. By then he was a celebrity and a prolific poet, and he left behind him a body of work that is now celebrated worldwide.