Question

Read the passage.

Swith! in some beggar’s haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle
Wi’ ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations:
Whare horn nor bane ne’er dare unsettle
Your thick plantations.
In these lines of verse from “To a Louse” by Robert Burns, what does the speaker command the louse to do?


A. jump on some cattle
B. crawl on another lady’s bonnet
C. swim in a dinner companion’s dish
D. crawl on some poor beggar

Answer 1

The speaker commands the louse to crawl on some poor beggar.

In “To a Louse”, the narrator notices a lady in church, with a louse that is roving, unnoticed by her, around in her bonnet. The sonneteer berates the louse for not realizing how significant his host is, and then reflects that, to a louse, we are all equal prey, and that we would be disabused of our pretensions if we were to see ourselves through each other's eyes.