To A Louse By Robert Burns Essay

640 Words2 Pages

Romanticism is the movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. This idea of Romanticism gave power to the individual that they never once had; people believed that others are inherently good. This time of dynamic and radical changes led to many writers who voiced their opinion on different matters of various concern. People were able to voice their opinion much more than they have in the past giving more power to the individual. It was this attitude that writers had that criticized many institutions. Among these writers is Robert Burns, in the texts To a Mouse and To a Louse, they contain three important messages of different attitudes, irony, and being thankful for what you have. In To a Mouse, Burns discusses the different mindsets that there are “thinkers” and there are “doers.” With two different kinds of people with vastly different ways they process decisions, which one is right? Burns discusses in his poem how he plows over a mouse’s home in the field, and he just scurries away. The amount of effort put in by the mouse to make that small home was probably immense. When it was plowed over, the mouse just went and began work on a new home! The mouse is living in the moment and …show more content…

In Burn’s poem about To a Louse, Burns is sitting in the church. This girl, who is very wealthy as noted by her clothing, shows up to the service late. This was probably done to draw attention to herself and she sits down in front of Burns. Burns notices something, this absurdly rich woman in this church has lice! Here is what Burns had to say to that, “It wad frae monie a blunder freeus and foolish notion: What airs in dress an’ gait was lea’e us and ev’n devotion!” (Lines 45-48, Page 739). What we can pull out from this is a sense of pride in knowing how a rich person was able to get an annoying pest such as

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