Although he was a late eighteenth century poet, Robert Burns also was a farmer, in fact it was on his farm where he came up with the idea for his famous poem, “To a Mouse.” Upon plowing his field in Scotland one afternoon in 1785 he accidentally dug up and ruined a mouse’s nest, and he feels bad for doing so and wants to apologize to the mouse. In his apology, Burns not only stresses his feeling of guilt for destroying the mouse’s home but he seems to go on a tangent where he conveys a deeper meaning. This meaning is that we should have respect for all creatures on the earth, large and small, and that all of our actions affect someone or something no matter how good our intentions may be.
Burns starts his poem by apologizing to the mouse, then he realizes that he is not that different from the mouse. He ponders on why man has man has made itself so prominent over all things on earth, after all we all share this planet and the resources on it. Since we have made ourselves so dominant we have interrupted some of God’s natural bonds he provided us with connecting all forms of life on this earth (Dickies 2). Realizing this Burns sees the distress that the mouse is under as it scampers away knowing that it doesn’t have a suitable home for the coming winter and he relates this to his own past failures and fears for the future ahead of him just as the mouse did (Dickie 1). Burns wants the mouse to survive the winter just like he wants himself to survive it. So he decides that he would rather the mouse steal an ear of corn every now and then in order to live instead of it perishing from starvation. He will feel blessed with the corn that is left over, and he will be glad to help the little creature survive (Dickies 2). From the first li...
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...he best of intentions we can still harm someone or something.
Burns had much more than just an apology to a mouse in his mind when he wrote “To a Mouse.” He was trying to communicate to his audience that we all have a place in this world and we have to share it with our neighbor, even if they are as small and insignificant as a mouse. He also wanted to make the world aware of the fact that everything we do, and every action we take effects somebody or something, so be careful in all that you do, and lastly to tell his readers to enjoy the moment while you have it and don’t concentrate too much on the future.
Works Cited
Dickie, Jordan. “A Soliloquy of Human Fear and Remorse.” Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse”: Analysis 03 Jul 2008: 1-3. Web. 13 March 2010.
"To a Mouse: Information from Answers.com." Answers.com. Web. .
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Burns, Robert. “To A Mouse.” Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, Inc., n.d. Web. 14
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