"To A Mouse" by Robert Burns (read by Sir William "Billy" Connolly)

He reads it like an actor. Wonderful!!!

Well done Billy.👏👏👏👏👏👏

Absolute, intelligible nonsense...

Oo caun spikk Inglish annaw weel no varry muckle 😅.

Billy Connolly murdering Burns.

Happy burns night 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Excellent rendition of one of the saddest and most beautiful poems ever written.
So full of humanity and connection with nature.
It has resonated through the years, left its mark. 'Of mice and men "
I still shed tears at the end.

See thon Curdy
Called a lord
Who struts and stares and all that. Though thousands worship him at his word, he is just a cuif for all that. For all that and all that, his ribbons and stars and all that,
The man of independent mind
Looks and laughs..at all that.

Sir Billy reading THIS icon aloud. Sheer joy! What a privilege to hear it.

Loved this video

❤ ma prayers 2 Billy an Rabbie. He was ma 4 greats grandad. Rip.

Beautifully delivered in guid braid Scots. The Big Yin truly is a national treasure.

I love the highs and lows of this poem. A mouse’s nest turned out ushers in disgust that turns to understanding and sympathy, even admiration or jealousy for a creature with such a simple life. Burns was fucking master. Billy’s reading is great!

Beautiful posting. Grazie. Bobby Burns, O'Bard of Scotland and great Ode to John Steinbeck.

Only Billy could get THAT mixture of emotion and mirth in his voice to read that poem.. fabulous😂..

L'Orange

Comme dans l'éponge il y a dans l'orange une aspiration à reprendre contenance après avoir subi l'épreuve de l'expression. Mais où l'éponge réussit toujours, l'orange jamais : car ses cellules ont éclaté, ses tissus se sont déchirés. Tandis que l'écorce seule se rétablit mollement dans sa forme grâce à son élasticité, un liquide d'ambre s'est répandu, accompagné de rafraîchissement, de parfums suaves, certes, -- mais souvent aussi de la conscience amère d'une expulsion prématurée de pépins.
Faut-il prendre parti entre ces deux manières de mal supporter l'oppression ? -- L'éponge n'est que muscle et se remplit de vent, d'eau propre ou d'eau sale selon : cette gymnastique est ignoble. L'orange a meilleurs goût, mais elle est trop passive, -- et ce sacrifice odorant... c'est faire à l'oppresseur trop bon compte vraiment.
Mais ce n'est pas assez avoir dit de l'orange que d'avoir rappelé sa façon particulière de parfumer l'air et de réjouir son bourreau. Il faut mettre l'accent sur la coloration glorieuse du liquide qui en résulte et qui, mieux que le jus de citron, oblige le larynx à s'ouvrir largement pour la prononciation du mot comme pour l'ingestion du liquide, sans aucune moue appréhensive de l'avant-bouche dont il ne fait pas hérisser les papilles.
Et l'on demeure au reste sans paroles pour avouer l'admiration que suscite l'enveloppe du tendre, fragile et rose ballon ovale dans cet épais tampon-buvard humide dont l'épiderme extrêmement mince mais très pigmenté, acerbement sapide, est juste assez rugueux pour accrocher dignement la lumière sur la parfaite forme du fruit.
Mais à la fin d'une trop courte étude, menée aussi rondement que possible, -- il faut en venir au pépin. Ce grain, de la forme d'un minuscule citron, offre à l'extérieur la couleur du bois blanc de citronnier, à l'intérieur un vert de pois ou de germe tendre. C'est en lui que se retrouvent, après l'explosion sensationnelle de la lanterne vénitienne de saveurs, couleurs, et parfums que constitue le ballon fruité lui-même, -- la dureté relative et la verdeur (non d'ailleurs entièrement insipide) du bois, de la branche, de la feuille : somme toute petite quoique avec certitude la raison d'être du fruit.

Francis Ponge - Le parti pris des choses (1942

Noo bad fer a Lowlander, ken.

Braw!

I don't really understand all of it, but it makes me just want to pick up Wind In The Willows , and start reading. Happy.

I didn't know till now Billy had been knighted! I remember him on American TV some years back... Good job on the poem ! ❤

Not enough humility

I quite enjoyed the unusual tempo, and the familiar comforting empathy and insight of the poem. The pace was unusual, and it needs something new, because both the poem and the voice are so well known. I found that quite refreshing as its usually slowed down to a dirge to be understandable to the modern ear. But most Scots know it well enough that a more natural tempo can be enjoyed, and you can listen two or three times to get some more. Well done Billy.

A McClaran who just consumed haggis, neeps and tatties, and a double Famouse Grouse and water, to the sounds of the Black Watch, I salute Billy Connelly. What a great rendering! ❤

Poor recital by an Anglicised Glasgow accent

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Great video

Remarkable close attention to the meanest detail of lifes turmoil. Wonderful!

My grandfather's family came from Ayrshire. In a drunken stuper he would often spout from memory " To a Wee Mousie". Thou his family moved to Canada and he adopted a Canadian accent, he sounded much like this wonderful rendition. He served in both WW1 and WW2. Thankyou.

Didn't know Sheogorath was into poetry

💚

He couldn't have got any closer to how I'd always imagined Burns would have spoken it.

Broke my heart.

Best thing Billy has ever done!

This is the same poem that inspired the book “Of Mice And Men” bloody love that book

Awesome!

The whole poem here is so much more beautiful than the one line from it that has become a sort of meme in modern English.

If my mother were still alive, tears would be rolling down her cheeks. She told me of how she loved to visit her father's aunt and uncle. They still kept the Scottish accent and the only pictures on the walls were of Theodore Roosevelt and Robert Burns.

I wish we could have had him at our Burns Dinner tonight.

Oor Billy.

Magnificent reading

Spiders obviously didn't bother Rabbie.
He might have written one called, To a Spider. Maybe he did.

Best i’ve heard yet

I had the great fortune to meet Billy in 1989 at a birthday party for Danny Kyle in the Buckshead in strathaven along with many dear friends some lost years past including one particularly dear, Margaret Forrest, many fond memories of that evening....

Best regards Sir Billy Connolly and friends and family - and kind thoughts on health issues.

Beautifully read Billy. This reminded of dark Halloween nights when my Scottish Wife would read Tam o Shanter to the children by candlelight.

Brilliantly done 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

That was beautiful thank you 👏 Billy it took me back to my childhood