Locates and describes a copy of Milton's Poetical Works with the ownership signature of Robert Burns, traces its provenance, and assesses the likelihood that it was the "pocket Milton" Burns told William Nicol in June 1787 that he had bought himself and carried with him "perpetually" to study "the dauntless magnanimity; the intrepid, unyielding independance; the desperate daring, and noble defiance of hardship, in that great Personage, Satan."

Reissued by Edinburgh University Press in: Burns Chronicle Burns Night Virtual Special Issue, January 25 2021, marking the transition of the journal to Edinburgh University Press: https://www.euppublishing.com/burns/virtualissues/burnsnight21?=