Portrait of a poet Though he was just 37 when he died, Burns left a legacy that resounds to this day
The year-old Robert Burns Birthplace Museum is full of rodents. Tiny mice enliven a set of weathervane scenes from Burns' narrative poem "Tam o' Shanter," rats run through a video illustrating 18th century life, and furry mammals feature in a kinetic exhibit and a 2-m-high mouse sculpture all echoing Burns' famed 1785 poem "To a Mouse."
A poet and lyricist whose work, in both Scots and English, embraced landscape, universal brotherhood and political reform, Burns has struck a far-reaching chord, influencing William Wordsworth, John Keats, even Bob Dylan. The title of John Steinbeck's 1937...
