Barbauld, Anna Laetitia - "The Mouse's Petition"

Firstly, the poem is a petition from a mouse, which gives the speaker an anthropomorphic quality, immediately humanizing the animal.  This gives the mouse intelligence, and no longer a "sad" animal.  We pity because the mouse is intelligent, and has moved away from the wild.  However, what makes it more interesting is that the petition is directed to one particular person (though read toward 18th century science practices).  This creates a one-on-one dialogue between animal and human, which creates a relationship that is close to equal (not equal yet because the mouse is a prisoner).  The speaker is interesting because it subverts the traditional image of a mouse, and through the ballad, it gives the mouse power that is not seen in the traditional relationship between man and animal. 

Though the mouse has intelligence and power in its position, it is still a prisoner wrongly imprisoned.  The sympathy does not come from the fact that the animal is neglected as a creature, it is neglected as a prisoner.  The prisoner wrongly accused has always been a creature that is empathized with in society, and especially in the growing rights movement that is developing in Enlightened Europe.  The prisoner is someone who is stripped of all his rights, and turning the prisoner into an animal shows how the animal is neglected in society. As the prisoner is removed from society, wrongly imprisoned is brought back into society because of pity and empathy.  This shows an attempt to bring the mouse (animal) into society, and bring discussion of animal rights to the Enlightened community.   

Citation:Title:Poems.

Author:Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia) (1743-1825)

Imprint:London : printed for Joseph Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, MDCCLXXIII. [1773].

Language:English

Pages:142

ESTC Number:T074944

Microfilm Reel#:Eighteenth Century Collections Online: Range 9128

Physical Description:vi,138p. ; 4°

Notes:Dedication signed: Anna Lætitia Aikin. A resetting of the first edition (also 1773), with the errata corrected. H3 is a cancel.

Source Library:British Library

Subject Headings:Devotional poetry

English poetry--18th century

Hymns, English--18th century

Religious poetry, English--18th century

Module Subjects:Literature and Language

ECCO Release Date:06/01/2004

Source:http://find.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ecco/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&scale=0.33&sort=Author&docLevel=FASCIMILE&prodId=ECCO&tabID=T001&searchId=R3&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=20&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28A0%2CNone%2C8%29barbauld%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28BA%2CNone%2C14%29+2NEJ+Or+0LRK+%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&inPS=true&userGroupName=utoronto_main&docId=CW3315162039&currentPosition=20&workId=0912800500&relevancePageBatch=CW115161997&contentSet=ECCOArticles&callistoContentSet=ECCOArticles&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&reformatPage=N&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&scale=0.33&pageIndex=44&orientation=&showLOI=&quickSearchTerm=&stwFuzzy=&doDirectDocNumSearch=false&forRelevantNavigation=true

From Eighteenth Century Collection Online (ECCO)