ENGL200B Lecture 3: Jan. 07 - Robert Burns
Document Summary
Wrote in a local scot dialect which would have sounded weird to people of london. Collector of folk poetry and music that was more simplified (e. g. using slang and sexually explicit) Was not noble, but a low-level farmer. Did not write about things that are often considered romantic. But this concentration on the individual is highly romantic. A poem about ploughing from first-hand experience. This is rare because most people who ploughed for a living were not educated. Written in scot dialect, which was also rare. Speaking to a mouse in a sympathetic way, because he accidentally turned up its home. In a way, the mouse is the same as him and he represents the evil oppressive system/ruler. The scots at this time were kicked off their lands and farms by the lords. Final stanza, burns acknowledges that the mouse is better off than he is because it cannot see into its miserable future like he can.
