by Shaheen Darr

Created on: June 19, 2008   Last Updated: December 31, 2010

Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) - Robert Burns was the son of a poor peasant farmer. He became not just a great scholar but a great poet of his time and his poems reflect his life and the political and cultural background of the times he lived through.

His poem 'To a Mouse' was written when he disturbed a mouse's nest while ploughing his field. In the poem he talks to the mouse calling it a 'small, sleek, cowering, timorous beast' who has no need to panic and scamper as he (Burns) is not going to chase him with a 'murdering' plough-staff'. He carries on the conversation and apologises to the mouse for the fact that 'man's dominion has broken nature's social union' meaning that he has disturbed the natural state of affairs that nature intended. The mouse's startled reation and ill opinion of 'this earth born companion and fellow mortal' is justified. Burns's sensitive and gentle nature is revealed in this poem and his love of nature and its gifts, no matter how small, is clearly evident in this conversation he has with the mouse.

Burns understands what would make the mouse steal 'an odd ear' or a small amount of wheat in 'twenty-four sheaves' as he too needs to survive. Whatever the mouse steals is a small amount which will not be missed and for which some blessing might even go to Burns. He looks at the mouse's nest which seems to be 'in ruin' because of both the wind and his plough which has broken its 'feeble walls'. It will be difficult for the mouse to build a new house because of the approaching winter bringing with it 'bitter and keen winds'

He feels sorry for the mouse who thought that he would be safe and cosy in the field with the winter on its way but the 'cruel plough' crashed his little home into 'leaves and stubble' leaving him without shelter or a home to suffer 'winter's sleety dribble and hoar-frost cold' .He then compares the mouse to human beings who also have the 'best laid plans' which never seem to go according to plan but go 'askew' leaving sadness in their wake rather than the 'promised joy' for which they were hoping. The difference between the mouse and him (Burns) is that whereas the mouse lives for the present, human beings look to the past for what has befallen them. They have hopes for the future, which they cannot foretell but they continue to 'guess and fear' about its outcome.

Burns's sensitive and philosphical nature shines through this poem and his sympathy towards the mouse and what has happened to his home shows his gentle, caring side. His study of humans and their attitude to life is very correct because most of a human being's life is spent worrying about what the future holds and how he wll cope with it or what past events have done to him, rather than living for the present and the now.

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