Quotes from work
To a Mouse

"To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785" is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1785, and was included in the Kilmarnock volume. According to legend, Burns was ploughing in the fields and accidentally destroyed a mouse's nest, which it needed to survive the winter. In fact, Burns's brother claimed that the poet composed the poem while still holding his plough.


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“Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!”

To a Mouse, st. 1 (1785)
Context: Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!

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“I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union.”

To a Mouse, st. 2 (1785)

Robert Burns photo

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