This poem, "To a Mouse," was read and discussed in class on Friday, Oct. 3. The poem, by Robert Burns in 1785, is the source for the title of "Of Mice and Men." (This file includes both the old and the modern English.)

Focus mainly on the last two stanzas, where the narrator discusses how plans tend to go wrong for both mice AND men; however, mice only worry about the present, while men stress out about the present, past and future.