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- To a Mouse, published in 1786, contains some of the most memorable lines of poetry – and yet its deeper meaning risks being lost. Burns expert George Wilkie claims that the poem is “not really understood by the mass of English-speaking poetry lovers, for no other reason than that the dialect causes it to be read as though in a foreign language.”
www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140125-the-mouse-that-roaredBurns’ To A Mouse: The poem we love but few understand - BBC
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- “To a Mouse” Summary.
- “To a Mouse” Themes. The Relationship Between People and Animals. See where this theme is active in the poem. The Unpredictability of Life.
- Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “To a Mouse” Before Line 1, Lines 1-6. On Turning up in Her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785. Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,
- “To a Mouse” Symbols. The Mouse. See where this symbol appears in the poem. The Destruction of the Nest.
- Stanza One
- Stanza Two
- Stanza Three
- Stanza Four
- Stanza Five
- Stanza Six
- Stanza Seven
- Stanza Eight
In the first stanza of ‘To a Mouse,’the speaker begins by describing the mouse about which the poem has been written. The adjectives used by the speaker are quite visual and multilayered in that they speak to the mouse’s physicality and emotional nature. It is “Wee,” or small, as well as “sleeket,” or sneaky, “cowran” and “tim-rous.” These final wo...
In the second stanza, the poet begins apologizing to the mouse for the nature of humankind. They have had “dominon” over the world and have been unwilling to accept creatures that are not like them. Unfortunately, the mouse is a very prominent figure on this list. In “Man’s” desire to control all parts of the world “he” has “broken Nature’s social ...
In the third stanza of ‘To a Mouse,’the speaker addresses the way the mouse lives. In the first lines, he tells the mouse he understands that “thou may thieve.” The fact that the mouse must steal food from humans does not bother the speaker. It is not the mouse’s fault that it has been degraded to this level. The mouse is only a “poor beastie” whic...
At the halfway point of this piece, the speaker turns to address the “housie” in which the mouse lives. It is no grand structure; it is “in ruin!” The walls are weak and are often “strewin” by the wind. Burns’ choice to emphasize the Scottish dialectis very evident in these lines. Particularly in the words “win’s” and “wa’s” which would not traditi...
The speaker finally turns to the mouse’s current situation. He understands that the mouse tried to shelter in a “field” where it could “cozie…beneath the blast.” It was here it “thought to dwell but then, “crash!” The wind came through and destroyed the home it has built. A reader should take note of the use of alliterationin this section. The poet...
The sixth stanza of ‘To a Mouse’ elaborates on what the mouse’s old home was like. It may now be in ruins, but the speaker still wants to share what the tiny creature built. It was only a “wee-bit heap o’leaves an’ stibble,” or pieces of grass and hay. It was made from minimal materials but cost the mouse a lot. All of the work has gone to waste as...
In the second to last stanza, the speaker wants the mouse to understand that it is not alone. Often one’s plans go awry, and “foresight” may often be in “vain” or pointless when one never knows what’s going to happen. The following lines became quite well-known after this poem’s publication, especially after they were used for John Steinbeck’s nove...
In the final stanza of ‘To a Mouse,‘ the speaker states that the mouse is “blest, compar’d wi’” him. It is only the “present” that hurts the mouse. The little “beastie” does not have to worry about the past or, really worry about the future. On the other hand, the speaker is able to “backward cast” his “e’e.” His prospects appear “dear” when basing...
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- October 9, 1995
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Oct 21, 2014 · Robert Burns’ To A Mouse is a poem loved by many – but few really understand it. On the anniversary of his birth, Fiona Macdonald examines its appeal.
Dec 20, 2018 · The full title of Robert Burns’s ‘To a Mouse’ is, in fact, ‘To a Mouse, On Turning Her up in Her Nest with the Plough, November 1785’. That full title explains what the poem is about – and it was probably based on a real event, when Burns accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest while ploughing….
‘To a Mouse’, however, highlights their stark differences as poets. We never see such specificity in the works of Shakespeare as we find even in the title of the Scots poem: ‘To a Mouse (On turning her up in her nest wi the Plough, November, 1785)’.
"To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785" [1] [2] is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1785. It was included in the Kilmarnock Edition [3] and all of the poet's later editions, such as the Edinburgh Edition.
Few of Burns’s poems do a better job of capturing this sensibility than “To a Mouse.” The speaker of this poem is a farmer who expresses remorse after accidentally destroying a mouse’s nest while plowing his field.
