To a Mouse
On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785 Wee, sleekit, cowrin, 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' murdering 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! I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' requet; I'll get a blessin wi' the lave, An' never miss't! Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! Its silly wa's the win's are strewin! An' naething, now, to big a new ane, O' foggage green! An' bleak December's win's ensuing, Baith snell an' keen! Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, An' weary Winter comin fast, An' cozie here, beneath the blast, Thou thought to dwell, Till crash! the cruel coulter past Out thro' thy cell. That wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble, Has cost thee monie a weary nibble! Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble, But house or hald, To thole the Winter's sleety dribble, An' cranreuch cauld! But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best-laid schemes o' Mice an' Men Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy! Still thou are blest, compared wi' me! The present only toucheth thee: But Och! I backward cast my e'e, On prospects drear! An' forward, tho' I cannot see, I guess an' fear!
Robert Burns
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Robert Burns Poems
- A Sonnet upon Sonnets
- To a Mouse
- A Red, Red Rose
- Address to the Deil
- Epistle to a Young Friend. May, 1786
- Holy Willie’s Prayer
- John Anderson my Jo
- Mary Morison
- Poor Mailie’s Elegy
- Scots Wha Hae, or, Robert Bruce’s Address to His Troops at Bannockburn
- Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale
- To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church
- Up in the Morning Early
- Epistle to Davie, a Brother Poet
- Address of Beelzebub
- Epitaph on my own Friend
- A Man’s a Man for a’ That
- The Silver Tassie
- Afton Water
- The Cotter’s Saturday Night
- O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast
- Address to a Haggis
- Here’s a health to them that’s awa