To+a+Mouse+by+Robert+Burns

= =

media type="youtube" key="cy8lehO7nqg" height="390" width="480" Scottish (Original) Version


 * To A Mouse by Robert Burns**
 * On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plow**
 * November 1785**

Small, sleek, cowering, timorous beast,  O, what a panic is in your breast!  You need not start away so hasty  With hurrying scamper!  I would be loath to run and chase you,  With murdering plough-staff.

 I'm truly sorry man's dominion  Has broken Nature's social union,  And justifies that ill opinion  Which makes thee startle  At me, thy poor, earth born companion  And fellow mortal!

 I doubt not, sometimes, but you may steal;  What then? Poor beast, you must live!  An odd ear in twenty-four sheaves  Is a small request; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> I will get a blessing with what is left, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And never miss it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Your small house, too, in ruin! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> It's feeble walls the winds are scattering! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And nothing now, to build a new one, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Of coarse grass green! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And bleak December's winds coming, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Both bitter and keen!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You saw the fields laid bare and wasted, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And weary winter coming fast, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And cozy here, beneath the blast, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> You thought to dwell, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Till crash! the cruel plough past <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Out through your cell.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> That small bit heap of leaves and stubble, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Has cost you many a weary nibble! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Now you are turned out, for all your trouble, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Without house or holding, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> To endure the winter's sleety dribble, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And hoar-frost cold.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> But Mouse, you are not alone, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> In proving foresight may be vain: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The best laid schemes of mice and men <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Go often askew, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And leaves us nothing but grief and pain, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> For promised joy!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Still you are blest, compared with me! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The present only touches you: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> But oh! I backward cast my eye, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> On prospects dreary! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And forward, though I cannot see, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> I guess and fear!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Analysis of //To a Mouse//**