To a Mouse: Difference between revisions
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"'''To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough'''"<ref>[http://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml Robert Burns Country: To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough]</ref> is a [[Scots language|Scots]] [[poem]] written by [[Robert Burns]] in [[1785 in poetry|1785]], and was included in the '''[[Kilmarnock volume]]'''. According to legend, Burns wrote the poem after finding a nest full of mice during the winter. |
"'''To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough'''"<ref>[http://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml Robert Burns Country: To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough]</ref> is a [[Scots language|Scots]] [[poem]] written by [[Robert Burns]] in [[1785 in poetry|1785]], and was included in the '''[[Kilmarnock volume]]'''. According to legend, Burns wrote the poem after finding a nest full of mice during the winter. |
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== The Poem == |
== The Poem OH HERROW! == |
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! Burns original |
! Burns original |
Revision as of 12:53, 30 September 2011
"To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough"[1] is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1785, and was included in the Kilmarnock volume. According to legend, Burns wrote the poem after finding a nest full of mice during the winter.
The Poem OH HERROW!
Burns original | Standard English translation |
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Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, I'm truly sorry man's dominion I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble, But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, Still thou are blest, compared wi' me! |
Small, crafty, cowering, timorous little beast, I'm truly sorry man's dominion I doubt not, sometimes, but you may steal; Your small house, too, in ruin! You saw the fields laid bare and wasted, That small bit heap of leaves and stubble, But little Mouse, you are not alone, Still you are blest, compared with me! |
Reception
John Steinbeck took the title of his 1937 novel Of Mice and Men from a line contained in the penultimate stanza: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" (often paraphrased in English as "The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry"). The 1997 novel The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon also draws its title from this line.
The first stanza of the poem is read by Ian Anderson in the beginning of the 2007 remaster of "One Brown Mouse" by Jethro Tull. Anderson adds the line "But a mouse is a mouse, for all that," at the end of the stanza, which is a reference to another of Burns' songs, "Is There for Honest Poverty", commonly known as "A Man's a Man for A' That".
The poem is led by the main Romantic idea of experiencing something through nature. Burns saw a mouse running and started deeply philosophizing about the great old relation of man and nature. He points out that man had destroyed nature, regarding himself as an entity standing above the whole.[2]
See also
References
External links
- McGown, George William Thompson. A Primer of Burns, Paisley : A. Gardner, 1907. Fully annotated version of To a Mouse, with historical background. pp. 9–20
- Text of the poem can be found at 76. To a Mouse