To a Mouse
“To a Mouse: On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785.”by Robert Burns, national poet of Scotland
(excerpt; rendered in standard English)
Small, sleek, cowering, timorous little beast, Oh, what a panic is in your breast! You need not start away so hasty With hurrying scamper! I would be loath to run and chase you, With murdering plough-staff.
I’m truly sorry man’s dominion Has broken Nature’s social union, And justifies that ill opinion Which makes you startle At me, your poor, earth born companion And fellow mortal! ...
Your small house, too, in ruin! Its feeble walls the winds are scattering! And nothing now, to build a new one, Of coarse grass green! And bleak December’s winds coming, Both bitter and keen!
You saw the fields laid bare and wasted, And weary winter coming fast, And cozy here, beneath the blast, You thought to dwell, Till crash! the cruel plough passed Out through your cell.
That small bit heap of leaves and stubble, Has cost you many a weary nibble! Now you are turned out, for all your trouble, Without house or holding, To endure the winter’s sleety dribble, And hoar-frost cold.
But Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!
The Influence of a Line
It is from this poem that the English language now has the proverb “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” So it traces back, at least in formal written form, to 1785.Yet the proverb is not simply a line in the poem, it is ultimately the general theme of the poem: That both man and mouse sometimes make plans and arrangements—whether nests or otherwise—that do not turn out as expected. I will grant, of course, that a farmer of our day would not be able to make a living if he or she grew squeamish every time a little critter was affected. The poem isn’t, at the end of the day, about that, however. It is, rather, a metaphor for life.
(Robert Burns had quite an impact. He is also known for popularizing the words to the song “Auld Lang Syne,” which, by the way, literally translates as “Old Long Since,” but it can be understood to mean “since long ago” or “for old times’ sake.” And the classic Scottish men’s hat—we all know it by sight—called the tam o’ shanter was also named in honor of a poem by Burns.)
The Proverb and Us
Recently, I have been trying to be less controlling. I’ve been striving for a little less “me, me, me” and a little more “let go and let God.” It’s not easy to do, but really, sometimes we all take ourselves too seriously. Our lives aren’t in our hands, nor, truly, is the state of the world. We can only do our best and trust.There is a risk for those living in our day, in part because we have access to so much information and disinformation. Somehow, it could be easy to feel like the keys to the kingdom could be in our very own hands. But the question sometimes becomes, even with the ability to research a multitude of things at our fingertips, do we still remember how “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”?
We can plan, strategize, and so on, but in the end, it’s not up to us. I find that this can take away a lot of the stress, and I hope that remembering this proverb can ease some of your burden, too.
