To a Mouse

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1786

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

Robert Burns wrote during a transitory period in English literature. In 1786, the poets of the Restoration and the first part of the 18th century, such as John Dryden and Alexander Pope, still represented the height of poetic composition. Though these poets had been dead for almost two generations at the time of Burns’s first publication, their perfection of classical verse forms led some critics to believe that there was nothing left to accomplish with poetry.

Burns’s poetry moved away from this focus on technical perfection. Through his interest in folk literature and writing in vernacular languages like Scots, Burns was one of the few poets of his era to demonstrate a way forward. Many of the themes and poetic techniques seen in a poem like “To a Mouse,” including the emphasis on the natural world, spontaneous verse, the value of animals, and the power of emotion, are seen in full bloom in the later Romantic movement. The Romantics, influenced by authors like Burns, constituted a major revolution in poetry, and many of the tenants of Romantic works still inform contemporary poetic conventions.

Sociohistorical Context

There is some debate about Burns’s socioeconomic status (see Murray Pittock’s article in the Further Reading & Resources section of this guide for more information), but Burns nonetheless came from a family of tenant farmers and had to work for much of his early life. Throughout the history of literature, the wealthy upper classes have tended to dominate the field due to their superior access to education and leisure time. Even when poets from the lower classes wrote successful verse, they were often dismissed as charming but unlearned, or they were given diminutive titles such as “peasant poet.”

Burns himself was often labeled a peasant poet due to his self-presentation and poetic subjects. Burns never denied the label and perhaps even used it to his advantage. The English elite, in the late 18th century, held unflattering prejudices about Scotland. The Scottish people, in general, were believed to lack the cultural sophistication of the English. The poetry and songs that came from Scotland were often dismissed as the work of near-illiterate peasants. Part of the reason for this conception is that Scottish poetry often only made it to England in the form of crude reproductions intended for wide circulation and were rarely presented as works of art. Burns’s use of Scots and his choice to depict rural scenes both play into those prejudices.

However, Burns’s technical poetic abilities prove that he is as well-read as any English poet, and his verse holds up to technical scrutiny in a way that demonstrates the English prejudices to be false. Burns’s ability to combine his Scottish, working-class sensibilities with conventionally technical verse made him an immediate success among audiences across the British Isles and the socioeconomic spectrum.