Burns was born and raised in Alloway, Ayrshire. During his upbringing, Burns’ father, continually prone to bad luck, suffered sickness and a series of bankruptcies until he finally passed away in 1784 (Scott-Kilvert 313). From this stemmed Burns’ matchless satire of the social structure of his day and hardened his heart against “all forms of religious and political thought that condoned or perpetuated inhumanity” (Scott-Kilvert 313).

Burns’ schooling involved everything from French to a minute amount of Latin. Heavily imposed on him during his education were the works of such literary greats as William Shakespeare and John Dryden, orienting most of his formal

When the farmer describes himself and the mouse as being “earth born” and “mortal,” there is a sense of compassion in the farmer’s tone and the mouse becomes personified and promoted to an equal status with the farmer. By simplifying the life of each the farmer and the mouse, Burns now speaks of them at the same basic level – creatures surviving on Earth, both facing the same trials, only on different scales (Kalasky 80). “The fluid, suggestive diction conveys poetically that rigid distinctions have little to do with the world as it is.” (Kalasky 80). In addition, Burns elects to utilize colloquialisms such as “Gang aft agley”, which simply means, “go often amiss” (Daniel 643). This and other native Scottish sayings give Burns’ To A Mouse a down to Earth, realistic feeling.

Throughout his poetic career, Robert Burns was inspired by his homeland surroundings while writing poetry. By employing the use of rich and vivid imagery, along with precise diction, this once “occasional poet” became a successful writer who gained much respect from his country (Scott-Kilvert 310).

“Silly,” in Stanza IV, carries the Scottish meaning of “deserving of pity,” “frail,”

Some topics in this essay:
English Scottish, Robert Burns, Scottish Dialect, Mouse Earth, Alloway Ayrshire, Scottish English, John Dryden, Stanza IV, Latin Heavily, kalasky 80, Mouse Burns, farmer mouse, scott-kilvert 313, robert burns, mouse burns, scott-kilvert 310, english scottish, poem mouse, vivid imagery, specific diction,