Source identified1
Image design Lavender
Read & copy
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley,”
Meaning & context
Burns reflects that careful plans can still be overturned by circumstances, linking the mouse’s ruined nest with the wider human experience of disappointed expectations.
Source details
“To a Mouse,” written in November 1785 and represented in Project Gutenberg #1279. The Scots wording appears in a poem that moves from sympathy with an animal to reflection on human foresight, regret and fear of the future.