The following version of the poem was used to create this guide: Burns, Robert. "To A Mouse." Poetry Foundation.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43816/to-a-mouse-56d222ab36e33.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Robert (sometimes known as Rabbie) Burns was born in 1759. His parents were tenant farmers with no formal education, and he experienced poverty and malnutrition in his youth. His father educated him at home, and, though they could not afford schooling, he learned reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history. At age 15, still a laborer on his parents’ tenant farm, he began to write. He married Jean Armour in 1788 over her father’s objection, and they had nine children, only three of which survived infancy. He planned to travel to Jamaica to work for his brother, without his wife and children. However, he could not afford the passage. At the suggestion of a friend, he published a collection of poems, which includes “To A Mouse.” He immediately received both financial and literary success. He returned to his farm and family, where he composed many of his most famous poems. In 1796, still only in his mid-30s, he died of unknown causes.

This poem is based on an incident in which Burns reportedly accidentally ran over a mouse with his plow, destroying its nest. It is a meditation on the mouse, the relation between animals and man, and the challenges of being human.