Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, commonly known as the Kilmarnock Edition, is a collection of poetry by the Scottish poet Robert Burns, first printed and issued by John Wilson of Kilmarnock on 31 July 1786. It was the first published edition of Burns' work. It cost three shillings and 612 copies were printed. The volume was dedicated to Gavin Hamilton.

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
First edition cover, circa 1786.
AuthorRobert Burns
Original titleKilmarnock Edition
CountryScotland
LanguageScots
GenrePoetry and Lyrics
PublisherJohn Wilson of Kilmarnock
Publication date
1786

Besides satire, the Kilmarnock volume contains a number of poems such as "Halloween" (written in 1785), "The Twa Dogs" and "The Cotter's Saturday Night", which are vividly descriptive of the Scots peasant life with which Burns was most familiar; and a group such as "Puir Mailie" and "To a Mouse", which, in the tenderness of their treatment of animals, revealed one of the most attractive sides of Burns' personality. Six of the original manuscript versions of the poems from the book are in the possession of the Irvine Burns Club.

In 1787, Burns travelled to Edinburgh with the intention of organizing a second edition and, after being introduced to publisher William Creech and printer William Smellie, 3,000 copies of the Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh Edition) were published in April 1787.

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