"To a Mouse"

Annotate your poem and add our notes from here, please. Allusions are different than symbols. You have to have read and understood the reference well-- or you won't understand your piece with the same depth. We have worked very hard to make sure that you understand that knowing what happens is possibly less than half of a text. Knowing how that text interacts with the world? That is everything. Remember Steinbeck is one of the foremost American Authors who changed a nation with his writing. It is important that we go beyond and feel into his true meanings.

​Of all times, I have taught this book, this may be one of the most important and, one of the first times, I thing Steinbeck would be really proud of us. Shutting down a nation and profits to safeguard lives? This is our story of how we did it right. Now, how are you going to invest in yourself, your dreams, your education, and your community so that we all make it through this stronger?

Please read part of the Burns article. It is lengthy. Concentrate on the first 25%. I pulled out one of the most important quotes for you here. 

"Burns...has been viewed alternately as the beginning of another literary tradition: he is often called a pre-Romantic poet for his sensitivity to nature, his high valuation of feeling and emotion, his spontaneity, his fierce stance for freedom and against authority, his individualism, and his antiquarian interest in old songs and legends. The many backward glances of Romantic poets to Burns, as well as their critical comments and pilgrimages to the locales of Burns’s life and work, suggest the validity of connecting Burns with that pervasive European cultural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries which shared with him a concern for creating a better world and for cultural renovation" (Poetry Foundation).

Robert Burns- overview

Allusion: a reference to another source: history, literature, religious, etc. 
Allegory: a piece with many layers where characters, places, and incidents are symbolic of something else- likely a real allusion. 

Answer the questions in quality annotations and/or answer them in Classroom. We hope to return. I can accept handwritten assignments and packets at that time. For altering your grade while we are distance learning. Turn in your work to Classroom as typed answers or as a picture of annotations.
Questions to annotate for:

1. What happens in the poem? What has the farmer done to the mouse? What will happen to the mouse because of it?
2. Who does the farmer represent? 
3. Who does the mouse represent?
4. Answer question #1 again in light of that representation. 
5. Does the farmer seem to have understood? Does he sound sincere? (Hint: is he going to do anything about it?) 

"To a Mouse" is an allegorical poem. Here are its most important layers: 
1) The farmer and the mouse- what is literally happening and how should the reader feel about this?
2) England and Scotland- Which is the farmer and which is the mouse? Why and how does that change the answer to your questions?
3) Humanity and Nature- Which is the farmer and which is the mouse? What is Burns saying about how humans treat the world and each other?