John Steinbeck clipped the title, Of Mice and Men, from a passage in the 18th-century poem, “To A Mouse. On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough” by Scottish poet Robert Burns. Burns, a farmer, wrote “To A Mouse” after he’d disturbed a mouse’s hideaway while plowing his field in November of 1785
Here’s the passage, from the poem’s seventh stanza, in the standard English version:
But Mouse, you are not alone, /
In proving foresight may be vain: /
The best laid schemes of mice and men /
Go often askew, /
And leaves us nothing but grief and pain, /
For promised joy!
If you’re a purist, here’s the same poem’s seventh stanza, in Robert Burns’ original:
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, /
In proving foresight may be vain; /
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an 'men /
Gang aft agley, /
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, /
For promis’d joy!
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