LITERATURE QUESTIONS
EARLY BRITISH LITERATURE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Bickering brattle
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Wee bit housie too in ruin
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Proving foresight may be vain
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Cost thee mony a weary nibble
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Detailed explanation-1: -Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! The stanza starts with the speaker telling the little mousie that she’s not alone ("no thy lane") in showing that foresight, or looking ahead to plan for the future, can be in vain, or a pointless exercise.
Detailed explanation-2: -An’ never miss ‘t! Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
Detailed explanation-3: -"To a Mouse” features Burns’s characteristic use of Scottish dialect and a six-line stanza form known as the habbie or Burns stanza.
Detailed explanation-4: -The poem follows a unified pattern of rhyme that emphasizing the amusing nature of the narrative. The stanzas follow a pattern of AAABAB, and make use of multi-syllable words at the end of each line. This is known as a feminine rhyme and is reminiscent of nursery songs.