02/11/2021

Robert Burns: To a Louse

O would some Power the gift to give us 

To see ourselves as others see us! 

It would from many a blunder free us, 

And foolish notion: What airs in dress and gait would leave us, 

And even devotion!


In this poem, written in the Habbie dialect, Burns muses upon the louse that he spots crawling on a lady’s bonnet in church – the louse does not observe class distinctions and regards all human beings equally, as potential hosts.




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