The mouse stands for a lot

I think Barbauld's "The Mouse's Petition" has been my favorite poem to read this semester. To start, the image of a protesting mouse is an image that I think would make anyone smile. This is the type of poem that is taught to young children, because the imagery in the poem is that of a small mouse in confinement (as far as prisoner imagery goes this is pretty tame). However, the poem's brilliance stems from this very innocent sounding poem, because its innocence serves as a top layer that shields the much deeper arguments in the poem.
The first part of the analysis that for me existed in the top layer of the poem, is the poem stating that animals have a consciousness, and thus should have rights. It would be horrifying to imagine keeping a talking mouse in a cage, because then that mouse would be able to describe the tortured life it was experiencing. The poem seems to imply that just because animals cannot speak up for themselves, they are capable of experiencing the same emotions (specifically emotional distress) and that is showed in the line "men, like mice may share" (46).
Underneath the animal activist voice in the poem is a more subtle, but for my reading, more relevant commentary on gender difference. Barbauld herself obviously would've faced sexism, and much of the poem seems to speak to that experience. For one, the metaphor of a mouse trapped in a cage is a very profound comparison to the way women are trapped within the patriarchy. There is the constant comparison between this mouse who tries to petition, but who would listen to a mouse? Barbauld seems to be insinuating women protesting had a voice as loud as a mouse's. There is also the reference to the "tyrant's chain" (10), which oppresses the "free-born mouse" (12). I took this line to be discussing a few elements of sexist oppression. The first is the experience of a woman growing up free and then seemingly becoming enslaved in marriage. The "tyrant" here seems to serve both as the husband, but also as society, which as a woman gets older, applies more and more pressure as an oppressive agent. The end of the poem that wishes for "some kind angel" (47) to come down and "clear thy path" (47), seems to be a statement about striving for gender equality. This seems to be further confirmed in the last line of the poem "and break the hidden snare" (48). The "hidden snare" could be the mouse expressing that it does not understand the cage because it is a human made trap. However, even that interpretation does not fully explain the word "hidden." I think Barbauld chose this word to directly challenge the restrictions that women face, because the "snare" women face is not a clearly built cage, but the unspoken pressures of the patriarchy act like the walls of a cage.