To a Mouse

Robert Burns · 1786 CE · Poem · English · Romantic

A ploughman turns up a mouse's winter nest in November and stops to apologise to her for the broken social union that has taught her to fear man's dominion. Her house is in ruins, the bleak December winds are coming, and there is neither the stubble left nor the strength to build another. Its best-known stanza allows that the best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley and leave nothing but grief for the promised joy.

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Lineage

• ↓ Of Mice and Men
  John Steinbeck · 1937 CE · Novel — takes its title from this

Attributes

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