The poem is about a farmer who ploughs up a mouse's nest. He apologizes to the tiny creature while telling it that he means no harm.
He also says he does not mind that the mouse occasionally steals an ear of corn. After all, the farmer reaps a lot of food from the land; surely, he cannot take what little food the mouse has away from him. Finally, he tells the mouse that it is not alone in failing to build wisely for the future; men fail at that too.In "To a Mouse," Robert Burns develops the need to respect nature's creatures, especially the small, the defenceless, the downtrodden .
As a small creature, the mouse represents not only lowly animals but also lowly human beings, ‘common ‘ folk who are often miss treated by the high and the mighty. As many who have suffered failure and loss, Burns’ narrator, or perhaps Burns himself, expresses jealousy for the mouse’s ability to live continually in the present without the past to painfully rush back into her mind whenever she remembers.It seems that Burns’ narrator has been wrestling with this hidden pain and worry for some time, and now, only with the emotional realisation of the mouse’s disaster is he forced face them. He somehow feels obligated to apologize to a little creature that has no understanding of what he’s trying to say, and whose death is all but assured thanks to his ignorant action. I think Steinbeck named his book of mice and men because his book tells of how two men downtrodden in society are working for people, having to move place to place because of recurring events to do with them, not sure what will happen to them in the future.George, one of the main characters in the book, much like that of the narrator in the poem, is continually remembering the past, like the events that occurred in weed with him and lenny.
At the end of the poem the narrator tells the mouse that it is not alone in failing to build wisely for the future; because men fail at that too. I think the relation to Steinbeck’s story is that George failed too, he failed to provide lenny and him with their own home in the future where they would never be told what to do, they would be free men.He failed lenny, because he couldn’t save him from Curley, and so he had to kill him himself. And because of this would always have the reminder that he failed painfully rush into his mind, whenever he remembered. Through the poem we see how through the narrators ignorant actions, the mouse’s death Is assured, I think this also refers to Steinbeck’s book Of mice and men, because lennys actions, though they may not be intentionally arrogant and selfish, always end up putting George into a bad situation.
