Five-minute digest
To a Mouse
Summary
To a Mouse, subtitled On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, November 1785, is one of the short poems in Scots that Robert Burns wrote while farming Mossgiel with his brother Gilbert. It appeared in the Kilmarnock volume of 1786. The speaker, a ploughman, has just broken open the winter nest of a field mouse, and he speaks to the frightened creature directly. He assures her that he will not chase her with the plough-staff, and he apologises for the way man's dominion has broken nature's social union, so that the mouse is right to fear him, though he is her earth-born companion and fellow-mortal. He grants that she may steal a few ears of grain, and says he will never miss them. Then he looks at the ruined nest: the little house of leaves and stubble, built against the coming of bleak December, has been torn open by the coulter, and she is turned out into sleet and frost. In the seventh stanza the poem widens. The mouse is not alone in finding that foresight may be vain: the best-laid schemes of mice and men often go astray and leave grief and pain instead of promised joy. The last stanza turns the comparison against the speaker. The mouse is blessed compared with him, because only the present touches her; he looks back on drear prospects and forward with guesses and fears. The poem is written in the six-line stanza now called the Burns stanza or standard Habbie, with its short fourth and sixth lines. It joins tenderness toward a small animal with a sober look at human mortality, and its proverbial line gave John Steinbeck the title Of Mice and Men.
Top Lessons
Dominion and kindness
The speaker accepts that man rules the fields, yet he is sorry that his rule makes the creature afraid. The poem asks what a kind and responsible dominion looks like.
Plans and providence
The famous seventh stanza says our best plans often go astray. Students can test the proverb against Scripture's teaching that we plan our way but the Lord directs our steps.
Fear of the future
The last stanza says the mouse is blessed because only the present touches her. The poem honestly names the human habit of regret and anxiety.
Verified Quotes
Frequently cited
“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”
Frequently cited
“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy”
“The present only toucheth thee”