Robert Burns

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Robert Burns Poems
OUTLINE
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u To a Mouse PAGEREF _Toc392832317 \h 2
To a Louse PAGEREF _Toc392832318 \h 3
Address to the Devil PAGEREF _Toc392832319 \h 4
To a Mountain daisy PAGEREF _Toc392832320 \h 4
Works cited PAGEREF _Toc392832321 \h 5
To a Mouse
Born in Scotland, Robert Burns was one of the most influential poets of his time. During his time he came up with some of the most amazing pieces that are being studied today. Among most of the influential works that he had, is a poem titled To a Mouse. In this poem, there is a farmer that is plowing his land. Accidentally the farmer turns up one of the nests that belonged to a mouse living on the farm. The farmer incidentally apologizes to the mouse, as he had destroyed his home. In the context, the farmer also tells the mouse that he can always eat from his harvest. The speaker in the poem is speaking on behalf of mankind and on how the mice should be treated.
A closer analysis of the speakers thought process reveals that he is comparing his plight to that of the mouse. The gap between the world of the humans and that of the mice is bridged using compassion as shown by the speaker, who seems to care for the mice wellbeing. Reading through the poem, one can find a lot of technical skills that the poet had to his arsenal as he expresses his thought with a much vigor and charm.
Burns had grown up in a family that had been subjected to poverty and oppression and it is easy to take in context that he was expressing that same feeling that he had growing up. With a lot of compassion, Burns is seen to raise the mouse to the level of humankind where in this case he is the representative of the human race (Loki.stockton.edu). Much of the sympathy from the speaker comes in within the fifth stanza. The sixth stanza relates to the amount of hard work that the mouse has to endure to live especially in the winter. In the second last stanza, the speaker relates to the fact that even though the humans and the mice put in a lot of hard work, it only brings them pain in the end. However, the speaker is quick to add that the mouse is lucky given that it only has to work on a daily basis and lives for the moment, while mankind has to work for the moment and the future (Loki.stockton.edu). Ideally the poem tries to compare the human life with that of the mice, only that the humans are not as caring as they should and most of the time will act in a manner that hurts others, without shame.
To a Louse
One other master piece is titled To A Louse. In the poem, Burns is sitting in church behind a woman. In the woman’s hat and hair there was a bug that Burns could see crawling up and down. According to the speaker in the poem, the woman was a fine lady and was clean as well. The speaker seems rather upset that the bug chose to inhabit the hair of this unsuspecting woman rather than choosing someone else that was not a...