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Poet: Robert Burns
Poem: To A Louse
Comment 3 of 3, added on May 11th, 2006 at 2:03 PM.
This poem deals with the issues of wealthy people thinking that they are better than poorer people and that they are immune to such things as lice etc.
Burns creates humour by expecting the louse to firstly understand what he is saying to it- "Ye ugly creepin blastit wonner" - this can also be seen as 'flyting': a tradition of Scottish men who constantly jokingly insult each other even though they are friends; secondly by expecting it to tell the difference between "Sae fine a lady" and "Some poor body" by saying to it: "How daur ye set your fit upon her". He appears to be upholding the class system, however, if he really did think this, he wouldn't be pointing out boldly that the woman had the louse on her and in doing so, he is bringing her down to size by saying that the louse should be on "some beggars hauffet squattle" but it is on her - so she is no better than these beggars; thirdly he uses hyperbole when describing methods of killing the louse:
"O for some rank mercurial rozet
Or fell, red smeddum"
Burns sees the louse as such a danger that he threatens to poison it to kill it - which is a bit extreme and adds to the hilarity and the image of "Wad dress your droddum" sounds like something an old granny would say to her misbehaving granchildren - so this indicates the light hearted tone and that Burns isn't someone who goes around poisoning things he doesn't like.
The tone changes in stanza 7 when he refers to woman as "Jeany" instead of "Miss" which indicates a fall of formality or respect which lets us know that he is mocking her.
The last stanza makes it clear that he definately thinks nothing of the fact that she is wealthy and wears her "Lunardi" bonnet, as he says the idea of thinking you look magnificient when you don't is a "foolish notion" - which applies not only to the woman in the story, but to everyone as he involves himself and others in the statement:
"O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us! "
Indicating if we were able to see how "foolish" we look it would "frae mony a blunder free us" and we would stop putting on an act - "airs in dress and gait" and stop doing things to look good "lea'e us / An ev'n devotion " - which in the context is implying half as many people probably wouldn't attend church because they wouldn't care about who saw them there.
The habbie stanza form: 3 long lines - a short line - a long line and then a short line is used consistenly throughout the poem and some of the best lines are contained in the two shorter lines.
P.S. I'm rambling on because this is one of the texts I have studied in class and my English exam is tomorrow - so saying all this is helping me to revise my knowledge of it. =]
Sarah Mo from United Kingdom
Comment 2 of 3, added on November 2nd, 2005 at 3:23 PM.
This poem was very hard to understand for high school levels... my entire class and I has trouble working our way through it... i found some sights on the internet that really helped me out...so thanks!!!
Elizabeth from Canada
Comment 1 of 3, added on September 10th, 2005 at 11:10 AM.
Burns uses satire to mock the airs and affectations of the privileged classes, who so often represent themselves as better than everyone else simply due to the accident of their birth. Imagine - a louse on a rich lady in church!!!
But the ending is a poignant prayer, imagining how much better the world would be if we could but see our own faults as clearly as others see them.
Burns was a genius, a true champion of the common folk, and a hero to Scots all over the world.
James from Canada
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This poem deals with the issues of wealthy people thinking that they are better than poorer people and that they are immune to such things as lice etc.
Burns creates humour by expecting the louse to firstly understand what he is saying to it- "Ye ugly creepin blastit wonner" - this can also be seen as 'flyting': a tradition of Scottish men who constantly jokingly insult each other even though they are friends; secondly by expecting it to tell the difference between "Sae fine a lady" and "Some poor body" by saying to it: "How daur ye set your fit upon her". He appears to be upholding the class system, however, if he really did think this, he wouldn't be pointing out boldly that the woman had the louse on her and in doing so, he is bringing her down to size by saying that the louse should be on "some beggars hauffet squattle" but it is on her - so she is no better than these beggars; thirdly he uses hyperbole when describing methods of killing the louse:
"O for some rank mercurial rozet
Or fell, red smeddum"
Burns sees the louse as such a danger that he threatens to poison it to kill it - which is a bit extreme and adds to the hilarity and the image of "Wad dress your droddum" sounds like something an old granny would say to her misbehaving granchildren - so this indicates the light hearted tone and that Burns isn't someone who goes around poisoning things he doesn't like.
The tone changes in stanza 7 when he refers to woman as "Jeany" instead of "Miss" which indicates a fall of formality or respect which lets us know that he is mocking her.
The last stanza makes it clear that he definately thinks nothing of the fact that she is wealthy and wears her "Lunardi" bonnet, as he says the idea of thinking you look magnificient when you don't is a "foolish notion" - which applies not only to the woman in the story, but to everyone as he involves himself and others in the statement:
"O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us! "
Indicating if we were able to see how "foolish" we look it would "frae mony a blunder free us" and we would stop putting on an act - "airs in dress and gait" and stop doing things to look good "lea'e us / An ev'n devotion " - which in the context is implying half as many people probably wouldn't attend church because they wouldn't care about who saw them there.
The habbie stanza form: 3 long lines - a short line - a long line and then a short line is used consistenly throughout the poem and some of the best lines are contained in the two shorter lines.
P.S. I'm rambling on because this is one of the texts I have studied in class and my English exam is tomorrow - so saying all this is helping me to revise my knowledge of it. =]
Sarah Mo from United Kingdom