Scots-language literature his unfinished long poem, "Auld Reekie" (1773), dedicated to the life of the city. His borrowing from a variety of dialects prefigured the creation of Synthetic Scots in the twentieth century and he would be a major influence on Robert Burns. Burns (1759–1796), an Ayrshire poet and lyricist, is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and a major figure in the Romantic movement. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of
Eugene Lang (author) Eugene Lang (author) Eugene Lang was a former chief of staff to two of Canada’s Liberal ministers of defence from 2002 to 2006. He co-authored with Janice Gross Stein a book "The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar" (Penguin, 2007) The Liberal Party, after dominating Canadian politics since the 1920s, has been in decline in the 21st century. As Lang (2010) concludes, they lost their majority in Parliament in the 2004 election, were defeated in 2006, and in 2008 became little more than a rump, falling to their lowest seat count and popular vote since the 1980s. Furthermore, says Lang, its