StoryTitle("nocaps", "To a Mouse") ?>
On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, November 1785
PoemStart() ?>
L0("Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, ") ?>
L0("O, what a panic's in thy breastie! ") ?>
L0("Thou need na start awa sae hasty, ") ?>
L2("Wi' bickering brattle! ") ?>
L0("I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, ") ?>
L2("Wi' murd'ring pattle! ") ?>
L0("I'm truly sorry Man's dominion ") ?>
L0("Has broken Nature's social union, ") ?>
L0("An' justifies that ill opinion, ") ?>
L2("Which makes thee startle ") ?>
L0("At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, ") ?>
L2("An' fellow-mortal! ") ?>
L0("I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve; ") ?>
L0("What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! ") ?>
L0("A daimen icker in a thrave ") ?>
L2("'S a sma' request: ") ?>
L0("I'll get a blessin wi' the lave, ") ?>
L2("An' never miss't! ") ?>
L0("Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! ") ?>
L0("It's silly wa's the win's are strewin! ") ?>
L0("An' naething, now, to big a new ane, ") ?>
L2("O' foggage green! ") ?>
L0("An' bleak December's winds ensuin, ") ?>
L2("Baith snell an' keen! ") ?>
L0("Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast, ") ?>
L0("An' weary Winter comin fast, ") ?>
L0("An' cozie here, beneath the blast, ") ?>
L2("Thou thought to dwell-- ") ?>
L0("Till crash! the cruel coulter past ") ?>
L2("Out thro' thy cell. ") ?>
L0("That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble, ") ?>
L0("Has cost thee monie a weary nibble! ") ?>
L0("Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble, ") ?>
L2("But house or hald. ") ?>
L0("To thole the Winter's sleety dribble, ") ?>
L2("An' cranreuch cauld! ") ?>
L0("But Mousie, thou are no thy lane, ") ?>
L0("In proving foresight may be vain: ") ?>
L0("The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, ") ?>
L2("Gang aft agley, ") ?>
L0("An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, ") ?>
L2("For promis'd joy! ") ?>
L0("Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me! ") ?>
L0("The present only toucheth thee: ") ?>
L0("But och! I backward cast my e'e, ") ?>
L2("On prospects drear! ") ?>
L0("An' forward, tho' I canna see, ") ?>
L2("I guess an' fear! ") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>