ROBERT BURNS
THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE
LEGEND
THE BEGINNING OF ROBERT BURNS
• Although his family was poor, his father wanted to give
him a good education.
• Robert Burns was the oldest of seven children
• Robert Burns did his part to work on his father's farm that
his father bought on Mt. Oliphant. Working there seemed
to have strained Robert's physique.
• His family moved to Lochea in 1771. Here Burns went to
the neighboring town Irvine to learn flax dressing;
however, the only thing that came out of this was that he
met a sailor ,who Robert Burns claims to have inspired his
immoral journeys in his life.
• He joined the free mason's in 1781 and was an active
member during his life. He obtained the degree of Royal
Arch in 1787
ADULTHOOD AND CAREER
• Robert Burns started becoming intimate with Jean Armour, and
Jean's father attempted to overthrow this marriage so Burns
decided to emigrate to the West Indies. To raise funds for
his emigration he published Kilmarnock, in 1786. These poems were
suprisingly successful.
• He had fourteen children, nine out of wedlock, which led to public
persecution
• Due to this success of his poems instead of sailing to the West
Indies he haded to Edinburgh
• This success caused him to be regularly married to Jean Armour,
and with the money he made from the success was able to help
fund his brother's farm
• He tried farming in Ellisland for another three years, but when his
attempts proved futile he and his family moved from Ellisland to
Dumfries.
• Voted most famous Scot by a Scottish TV station in 2009.
ROBERT BURNS'S STYLE
• Robert Burns wrote a lot about the cultural identity in
Scotland,sexuality,and poverty.
• He also expressed in his work about Radicalism and
Republicanism, which was relevant to his time because of
the French Revolution.
• It has been said that Burns emotions were very ranged
some suggest he suffered from manic depression.
However, there is no vital evidence of this claim.
• Burns's satirical, despcriptive, and playful verse arfe
products of his sense of humor.
• The dialect he used brought a much needed freshness to
the original english romantic poetry
• Influenced American author John Steinbeck to write Of
Mice and Men
TO A LOOSE
Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.
Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon herSae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.
TO A LOUSE
Swith! in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whaur horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.
Now haud you there! ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rils, snug an' tight;
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it --The vera tapmost, tow'ring height
O' miss's bonnet.
TO A LOUSE
My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose ou
As plump an' grey as onie grozet:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,
I'd gie ye sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum!
I wad na been surpris'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy:
Or aiblins some bit duddie boy,
On's wyliecoat;
But Miss's fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur ye do't.
TO A LOUSE
O Jenny, dinna toss your head,
An' set your beauties a' abread!
You little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin!
Thae winks an' finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin'!
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
To A Louse Analysis
• In the first stanza the speaker notices a bug crawling up a woman's
body.The speaker then starts to ask the bug as well as himself were it is
going.The speaker assumes that the bug has been in the woman's hair and
that it has been taken good care.
• In the second stanza the speaker is upset that the bug wants to say in the fine
lady's hair.
• In the third stanza he tells the bug to go find other bugs of his kind and go to
the body of a poorer person rather than a rich person.
• The fourth stanza he goes on to say that the bug won't be satisfied until it
reaches the top of the hat of the find lady.
• The sixth stanza is where the speaker states that he wouldn't be surprise to
see the louse in an old lady's head or even the inside of a little boy, but not a
fine lady.
• Stanza seven the speaker is saying to this women named Jenny that if only
she knew that the louse was in her head knocking down the beauty she
presents
TO A LOUSE (CONTINUED)
•
Stanza seven the speaker is saying to this women named Jenny that if only
she knew that the louse was in her head knocking down the beauty she
presents as she is noticing something is in her hair.
• The last stanza the speaker says that if only people had the power to see
oursevles as others do then people would be free from there own faults.
• Theme: ' If one could see oneself as others do, then one would realize one's
faults, and be freed of many mistakes .'
TO A MOUSE
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle.
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth born companion
An' fellow mortal!
TO A MOUSE (CONT.)
I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't.
Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's win's ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!
TO A MOUSE (CONT.)
Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld.
TO A MOUSE (CONT.)
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
Still thou are blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
TO A MOUSE ANALYSIS
Stanza 1 – In stanza one Burns addresses a mouse that he sees
in some heavy Scottish dialect. He describes the mouse as
something that is scared. Burns then tells the mouse that he
does not want to chase it.
Stanza 2 – Stanza two brings a shift of dialect. Burns tells the
mouse the reason that humans chase it is because we are
broken away from our nature, and for this he apologizes to the
mouse.
Stanza 3 - The poem shifts back to the heavy Scottish dialect.
Burn understands that the mouse needs to steal an occasional
ear of corn to live, but it is ok because the mouse needs to live
so Burns does not mind.
TO A MOUSE ANALYSIS (CONT.)
Stanza 4 – Burns reflects on how the mouse’s house has been
destroyed by his own plow, and now the mouse has nothing to
make a new house out of. Burns feels especially bad because it is
winter so the mouse will probably die.
Stanza 5 – Burns begins to describe how the mouse was once
prepared for winter because it saw winter’s fast approach, but
because of Burn’s plow destroying her home she is no longer
ready for the winter.
Stanza 6 – Burns talks about how the house that the mouse
spent a lot of time making is now gone, and now has to live
though winter with nothing.
TO A MOUSE ANALYSIS (CONT.)
Stanza 7 – The beginning of this stanza marks a shift where
Burns begins to tell the mouse that he is not alone, and that
foresight usually ends in vain.
Stanza 8 – Burns tells the mouse that is better off than he is and
that although he cannot see the future he still tries to guess
what will happen so he can prepare as well as fear the parts of
the future he cannot see.
Throughout the poem Robert Burns develops the theme of
respecting life no matter how small. A live and let live
mentality.However, In the second part of the poem Robert
Burns seems to develop a second theme of one can never truly
prepare for the future for it is unknown.
What did you find?
•Dialect
Speech characteristic of a particular region or group.
•Rhyme
In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the second, third, and fifth,
and the fourth line rhymes with the sixth. Therefore, the rhyme
scheme is aaabab. The types of end rhyme used include masculine
rhyme, as in thrave and lave (Lines 15 and 17); feminine rhyme, as in
blast and past (Lines 27 and 29); and near rhyme, as in startle and
mortal (Lines 10 and 12).
•Meter
The first, second, third, and fifth lines of each stanza are in iambic
tetrameter, rhyme with four measures. The fourth and sixth lines of
each stanza are in iambic dimeter, a line of poetry consisting of two
metrical feet.
To a Mouse
• Diminutives
Burns uses diminutives such as beastie and Mousie to suggest smallness
and to endear the mouse to the reader. Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus
defines diminutive as "a word or name formed from another by the addition
of a suffix expressing smallness in size, or sometimes, endearment or
aloofness.
• Personification
(line 26) “An’ weary winter comin fast”
To a Louse
• The same rhyme scheme in To a Mouse is found throughout To a Louse. (aaabab)
“Ha! whare ye gaun' ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely
Owre gauze and lace,
Tho faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.”
• Metaphor
(Lines 24-25) My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out, As plump and gray
as onie grozet
• Alliteration
(Line 14) “and sprawl, and sprattle”
• Allusion
(Line 15) jumping cattle
• Hyperbole
(Line 7) “Ye ugly, creepin’, blastit wonner,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Robert Burns - About Robert Burns." Electric Scotland Is All about the History of
Scotland
and the Scots. Web. 15 Dec. 2010.
<http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/rburns.html>.