Brown, Mary Ellen. Burns and Tradition. London: Macmillan Press, 1984, 176 p.

Explores Burns's use of traditional content, form, and style in his works, stating that he "became and continues to be a figure in the Scottish legendary and customary tradition."

Daiches, David. "Calvinism and the Poetic Imagination: From Burns to Hogg, Problems of Antinomianism." In his God and the Poets: The Gifford Lectures, 1983, pp. 133-52. London: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Outlines the effect of eighteenth-century religious beliefs on Burns's poetry.

Damrosch, Leopold, Jr. "Burns, Blake, and the Recovery of Lyric." Studies in Romanticism 21, No. 4 (Winter 1982): 637-60.

Traces the history of the lyric and its use by several poets, particularly Burns and William Blake.

Davison, Edward. "Robert Burns." The Literary Review 13, No. 4 (Summer 1970): 475-79.

Assesses Burns's popularity.

Donaldson, William. "The Glencairn Connection: Robert Burns and Scottish Politics, 1786-1796." In Studies in Scottish Literature, Vol. XVI, edited by G. Ross Roy, pp. 61-79. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1981.

Studies the effect of Scottish politics on Burns's poetry.

Jack, R. D. S. and Noble, Andrew, eds. The Art of Robert Burns. London: Vision Press, 1982, 240 p.

Includes several essays focusing on "the distinct literary modes and poetic forms employed by Burns."

Kinsley, James. "Burns and the Merry Muses." In Renaissance and Modern Studies IX (1965): 5-21.

Appraises Burns's 1800 collection of poetry, Merry Muses of Caledonia.

Kramer, Aaron. "Robert Burns and Langston Hughes." Freedom-ways 8, No. 2 (Spring 1968): 159-66.

Suggests that Burns and Langston Hughes are both "people's" poets.

Low, Donald Á., ed. Critical Essays on Robert Burns. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, 191 p.

Collection of essays on Burns, including criticism by Thomas Crawford, James Kinsley, and David Daiches.

Schneider, Mary W. "The Real Burns and 'The Study of Poetry.'" Victorian Poetry 26, Nos. 1-2 (Spring/Summer 1988): 135-40.

Centers on the debate between Matthew Arnold and John Campbell Shairp about the real Burns.

Simpson, Kenneth. "Burns and Scottish Society." Eighteenth-Century Life 15, Nos. 1-2 (February/May 1991): 210-24.

Contends that the relationship between Burns and his social environment was a source of the many and sometimes contradictory voices in his writings.

Weston, John C. "Robert Burns's Use of the Scots Verse-Epistle Form." Philological Quarterly XLIX, No. 2 (April 1970): 188-210.

Explores the origin and use of the Scottish verse-epistle genre, stating that Burns "found in the Scots epistle a perfect medium for the expression of an important part of his personality with its corresponding vision."

Additional coverage of Burns's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Gale Research: Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, 1789-1832; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 109; DISCovering Authors; Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Vol. 3; Poetry Criticism, 6; and World Literature Criticism.