To a Mouse, on Turning her up in her Nest with t
The speaker addresses a small, frightened mouse whose nest has been destroyed by a plough. He assures the creature that he does not wish to chase or kill it, and regrets that human power over nature has made animals fear people, despite their shared earthly mortality. He acknowledges that the mouse may sometimes steal a little grain, but excuses this as necessary for its survival and says he can spare such a small loss. He grieves for the mouse’s ruined home, whose fragile walls are scattered by the wind. With no green material left to build another shelter, the mouse faces the harsh, cold winds of December. The mouse had seen winter approaching and had chosen a sheltered place beneath the blast, expecting to live there safely until the ploughshare violently tore through its dwelling. Its small heap of leaves and stubble had required much labour to gather, yet it is now homeless and exposed to sleet and frost. The speaker reflects that the mouse is not alone in discovering that careful plans can fail: the best schemes of mice and men often go wrong, replacing hoped-for happiness with grief and pain. Yet he concludes that the mouse is still more fortunate than he is, because it suffers only in the present, while he is troubled by memories of bleak things behind him and fearful guesses about what may lie ahead.
By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Pastoral Poetry · 490 words
First lines
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, / 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!
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A short, highly expressive verse poem centered on the speaker's emotional response to disturbing a mouse's nest.
- Nature Poetry — The poem focuses on a mouse, its winter shelter, the ploughed field, weather, and humanity's place within the natural world.
- Pastoral Poetry — Its rural agricultural setting, including ploughing, harvest remnants, fields, and a small creature affected by farm labor, strongly reflects pastoral conventions.
- Scottish Poetry — Burns writes in Scots dialect and grounds the poem in Scottish rural language, landscape, and farming culture.
Tags
Scottish poetry · Scots language · eighteenth-century literature · pastoral poetry · nature poetry · dramatic monologue · rural Scotland · farm labor · ploughing · field mouse · humanity and nature · animal suffering
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To a Mouse, on Turning her up in her Nest with the Plough is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1786 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: 1786 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Scottish Poetry, Animal Poetry
- Length: 490 words
- Structure: 1 section, 8 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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