Burns’s address to the mouse may initially suggest something rather sentimental; but read on, and the next verse sees Burns casting himself as the little creature’s fellow-mortal with a shared dignity; while the end reveals Burns facing up to the uncertain realities of life with bleak fortitude. Quite a lot to blend into one poem!
from TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST, WITH
THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickerin brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
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,
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
’S a sma’ request:
I’ll get a blessin wi the lave,
An’ never miss’t!
~
That wee-bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,
An ‘ cranreuch cauld!
~
But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,
An lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy.
~
Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, thou I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!
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