Introduction, with a brief history of Burns's relation of literary canons -- Rob . Burness to Poet Burns: Bard, interrupted -- "If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven': Wordsworth responds to Burns -- Highlands: Burns, Lady Nairne and national song -- Three drunk men: Visionary midnight in Robert Fergusson, Burns and Hugh MacDiarmid -- Epilogue: Burns and Aphorism; or Poetry into Proverb.