Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Robert Burns
About This Quote

This quote is from a poem by Robert Burns. The poem was written in a childlike manner and has a very light tone. The speaker has a very youthful voice and seems to be about four or five years old. It would have been very unusual for a grown man to write in such a way, so the fact that the author was a child suggests that he was trying to mimic the cadence of a child’s voice.

The poem is meant to amuse rather than instruct. In this case, Burns uses two forms of mockery: first, by using simple words and short sentences, and second, by using animal references. He does so because he wants to make fun of the kind of verse that other people think should be written in this way.

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