DRAMATIC SITUATION
The speaker is in a church and notices a louse on an unsuspecting woman’s bonnet. The speaker complains and discusses the disgusting Louse. He characterizes the louse as “Ye ugly, creepin’, blastit wonner,”. He speaks to the louse telling it to find somewhere else to "seek your dinner". The speaker in the last stanza thinks that the woman should be given the gift of seeing herself as people see her and it would save her from embarrassment and give her some insight.
THEME
"TO A LOUSE" by Robert Burns is a humorous poem that has social satire in it. The theme is in the last stanza of the poem. It meant that an amazing gift would be if God let us see ourselves as others see us it would end our foolish notions of what we are like. This means we should be aware of the important things in life and the things that are worth reacting to and the things that really are not very important. Life is short and we shouldn’t worry about things that won’t matter in the long run. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not like the woman in this poem.
TONE
This poem has strong Scottish dialect and words, which many of us have never heard. The poem is written to satirize the social situation on a louse being in the bonnet of an unsuspecting woman. In the last stanza the tone becomes more serious when the theme of the poem is stated.
ALLITERATION
Line 8 "shunned by saunt an’sinner"
Line 23 "tapmost, tow’ring"
CONSONANCE
Line 14 "There ye may creep, and sparwl, and sprattle"
ASSONANCE
Line 3 "I canna say but ye strut rarely"