And yet, the ‘universality’ claimed for the work of both Burns and Shakespeare is perfectly evident. In 2008, as we watch entire species fall off the map of history we find poignancy in the idea of Nature’s broken ‘social union’. Our roaring, petrol-guzzling way of life had its origins in the agricultural and industrial revolutions of Burns’ era, something we often find surprising given that he ploughed and sowed his fields by hand, able to see the life-cycles of something as small as a mouse, a feat inconceivable in modern industrial farming, never mind our predominately urban world.

But, in its own way, ‘To a Mouse’ is a neglected poem. Like ‘Daffodils or ‘Sonnet 18’, we barely read it anymore, the title is shorthand for what we think it says. Even now as you read my thoughts on the poem you probably skipped reading the handily-provided text. I know I would have. I ask you now to read it anew, try reading it aloud, and try to ignore the fact that, like Hamlet, it is ‘full of quotations’. Introduced by a variety of writers, artists and other guests, the Scottish Poetry Library’s classic poem selections are a reminder of wonderful poems to rediscover. We’re currently delivering to the following countries including Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand (16 of 17 regions), Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, & United States (20 of 62 states inc Alaska, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC, & Wyoming). However, it has so long been my favourite poem, I have bored so many people with my enthusiasm for it and it is so ‘visible’ in the lives of those brought up in the Scottish education system that I felt I should choose something unknown, bring to attention a long-neglected work. And yet, here I am, once again propounding the joys of our ‘national bard’ writing about a rodent.Much has been made of this poem's connection to Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), a key text in the moral philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment. This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. Burn's regret at breaking 'Nature's social union' echoes Smith's notion that all earthly creatures are bound together through benevolent exchange. Burns was an early advocate against cruelty to animals. Men who derive pleasure from the pain of animals receive the wrath of his pen. The 'poet-ploughman' has been taken quite literally in this case! In the poem the mouse's hard work is destroyed in one fail swoop, and now it will be forced to suffer through the hard Scottish winter despite its careful preparations.

Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Man is equally vulnerable to disaster, and, as a tenant farmer, Burns was particularly aware that the best laid plans may often go awry. However, man suffers even more through worry than the mouse that only lives in the moment. My comparison of Burns with Shakespeare is not accidental. In Scotland we have the sneaky advantage of claiming both writers as our (very much capitalised) National Bard, depending on whether we choose in that moment to think of ourselves as Scottish or British. ‘To a Mouse’, however, highlights their stark differences as poets. We never see such specificity in the works of Shakespeare as we find even in the title of the Scots poem: ‘To a Mouse (On turning her up in her nest wi the Plough, November, 1785)’. Timorous Beasties’ work embodies a unique diversity of pattern, ranging from design that echoes a golden age of copperplate engraving (a time-honoured classic is the Thistle range; or Merian Palm superwide wallpaper) to examples of a distinctly edgy nature, an elegant transgression, a display of chic irreverence. Yet, the studio fully engages a design discourse with textile's history by lending an aesthetic evolution to time-honoured motifs.

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