The sculptures, pictured above with two of StAnza's officials, were specially commissioned for Scotland's International Poetry Festival as part of this year's Homecoming celebrations and are going on long-term loan to the Parliament.

The heads will be on display there from next Monday, August 17, to coincide with start of the Festival of Politics at Holyrood.

The lifesize heads are made of matchheads and one of the pair was set alight at the launch of StAnza's launch last March, which was attended by the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

'Burning Burns' was hailed as a metaphor for the inspiration that Scotland's Bard continues to evoke down the centuries. The heads, one blackened by burning and the other with the red of its matchheads still intact, make a dramatic contrast and will be displayed together in a specially made glass case at Holyrood.

Fife-born David Mach took three months to make the heads and they required 12000 boxes of matches. The lighting of one of the heads was the centrepiece of StAnza's festival launch.

Read the full story in this week's Citizen