The Mouses's Petition

              What struck me most about the assigned readings is that Anna Barbauld's writing style and

 method is very unique compared to the other poets we have studied. For me, her poetry is very 

accessible and much more straightforward than the works of Coleridge or Wordsworth, for example.

 In "the Mouse's Petition" Barbauld creates a speaker who is a mouse in Dr. Preistly's lab. The mouse 

writes a "petition" in which he begs for his freedom. By creating this speaker, Barbauld gives the 

mouse a consciousness. This highlights the terrible aspects of testing on animals because the reader is

forced to think of the mouse as an equal rather than a lesser species. At the end, the poem takes an 

interesting twist. It seems like the mouse is almost threatening the doctor by suggesting he free him 

so he will also be saved in his time of need.

            Like many poems, there has been much debate over the analysis of the content within the

poem. I plan to discuss this in class but it is interesting to question the poem's purpose and how the 

content can be interpreted based on the purpose you feel the poem has.

Here is some Barbauld fan art(is that what I should call it?) I found, enjoy!




P.S. Happy Earth Day!