The poem depicts a church mouse, and how he is disheartened at the sight of a hoard of rodents and mice that have come to share the feast, in times of plenty. It is a time of celebration at the otherwise isolated church. The mouse not only mocks but also with his wit, skilfully narrates the story of the different personalities that visit the church. He talks about atheists that invade the sanctum for religious prayers, and devour the food at the church. He talks about mice, which don’t supports the beliefs that church upholds and yet they come to greedily satisfy their appetite. He scoffs at a pretentious rat that comes to intimidate the others, and arrives to the spiritual church with bad intentions and to cause more harm than good. He talks about some that enter the sacred gathering for entertainment and are shallow. A “Low Church mouse” insults the mouse for being too traditional and holy, and although he cries in poverty, he continues to do wrong like the rest, and satisfies his desire for food. The mouse is miserable at the thought of sharing all the food, which he has waited patiently all year long for.
As you search the poem for a deeper meaning, the poet’s language becomes didactical and tells you how human beings worship everyday and do, as they are told. And towards the end, the poet becomes sarcastic and claims that even though humans are pious and dutiful, he finds it ironic that the church is full on Harvest Day with people he never sees throughout the year. By then the reader is aware, that the poet intends to make people realises about the insincerity and mendaciousness of society, and how in turn they should not follow their steps and visit the church and worship God regularly. The last four lines, powerfully expresses the entire theme of the poem, and how people rather come to the church when they have to satisfy their hunger, than to worship and pray. It brings the entire poem and the poet’s sentiments to a satirical end.
The poet uses a profusion of words that he skilfully weaves to lucidly narrate the poem. It creates a very vivid image of the situation and reveals his eye for detail. The poem is lengthy and does not contain any stanzas. Instead it is flowing work of art that is of authentic quality and has no breaks. The structure’s overall effect makes the poem have a regular beat and a definite rhyme scheme. Generally every two lines rhyme with each other leaving a few exceptions. This again gives the illusion of a poem that is flowing, and keeps the reader engrossed.
The mood of the poem is not only frustration, but also an indication of jealousy as others consume the mouse’s food. The poet uses humour, to cleverly make a narrative with not only dry wit, but also an in-depth meaning.
The poem deals with the double standards of society and evokes an emotional response in me, it deals with inner conflict, as at one time or another, all of us have faced people that are selfish and despise the teachings of god. It teaches me to be moral and virtuous, and to realise that we must be pious. Although the poem symbolically uses the mouse to make the readers understand the poet’s ideas of different people of society, it applies to mankind in general and I agree with his feelings towards the hypocrisy of our contemporary world.