Melody Kellogg

4 May 1998

Intro to Literary Studies

Dr. Conrow

Of Mice and Men: Burns' "To a Mouse"

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
		Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,             5
		Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
		Which makes thee startle    10
At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
		An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave                        15
		‘S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin' wi' that lave,
		And never miss't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!                            
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!  20
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
		O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
		Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste,    25
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
		Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
		Out thro' thy cell.              30

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble, 
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
		But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,           35
An' cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no they lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice and men
		Gang aft a-gley.                 40
An' leave us nought but grief an' pain
		For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e               45
		On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
		I guess an' fear!

First of all, let us look at the tone of the poem. Burn's use of the Scottish dialect lends a light feel to the work by using such words as "Mousie" and "wee bit housie" (ln 19). The poem appears to be almost childlike in its dialect and delivery. One can almost picture a plowman leaning over his plow, smiling at the little mouse who is running away from him. However, hidden in this light tone is a deep compassion for nature.

The poet's sympathy for the mouse comes across very clearly in such lines as "I'm truly sorry man's dominion / Has broken Nature's social union" (ln 8). This sympathy is continued throughout the poem. The plowman poet does not begrudge the mouse a little bit of grain "What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!", and simply states that he will "get a blessin wi' the lave, / And never miss't!" (ln 13-19). But, hidden in the sympathy for the "wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" (ln1), there is a compassion for humanity, personified in the plowman. This empathy can be further observed as the poet laments the destruction of the mouse's house in lines 19-24. He continues in line 25, "Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste, / An' weary winter comin fast, / An' cozie here, beneath the blast, / Thou thought to dwell." This is the point where he begins to cross the line into talking about humans. Mice do not have any foresight; they simply act on instinct. As the speaker himself states, "The present only toucheth thee" (ln 44). Planning ahead for the future is a distinctly human trait. Burns further ties humankind in with the mouse with the famous lines,

But, Mousie, thou art no they lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o' mice and men

Gang aft a-gley. An' leave us nought but grief an' pain

For promised joy.

Herein lies the core of the poem. Burns is binding all of nature's creatures together in their plight of survival. Dr. Joseph Riehl, a Burns critic, said that "To a Mouse" was about "the community between man and animal: that we're not much better than the animals, that we should be so arrogant" (Billodeax 2). Burns appears saying that humans are no higher than animals, and their plans and lives can fail or be changed in an instant. Fate cares not whether a being is a mouse or man.

The final stanza of the poem turns the focus totally on man.

Billodeaux, Alyshia. Remembering Auld Lang Syne: Robert Burns' Genius Celebrated. Online. www.usl.edu/Newspublications/TheVermillion/96_07_12/page_03.html. Internet. 1 May 1998.

Boswell, James To a Mouse. Online. www.cbs.ogi.edu/~boswell/James_Boswell/mouse.html. Internet. 1 May 1998.

Burns, Robert. "To a Mouse." Literature: The Evolving Canon. Ed. Sven P. Birkets. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996. 809-10.