User:Littlebells/sandbox

Legacy
Though Little did not reach fame in her own time and her biggest claim to fame came from her relationship with Robert Burns, this young "Scotch Milkmaid" made a lasting impact for those studying early feminism and poets of the laboring class. Literary critics are still lamenting her lack of popularity. Her major works, 'Upon a Young Lady's Breaking a Looking Glass', 'An Epistle to a Lady, and 'On a Visit to Mr. Burns' cover topics from the fruitlessness of vanity to the inequality of men and women, often of the same class. "A Poem on Contentment" speaks of an impoverished woman, Janet Nicol, whom Little praises for her lack of material goods and reassures her that no matter what happens she will be okay as long as she remembers to be humble and kind: "Content grows joy, in meeting there The little, lovely, blooming fair, Who makes thy cot and thee her care; Whose gentle, gen'rous, noble mind, Tho' great and rich, can here prove kind; Whose footsteps mark her path with peace, Whose smile bids ev'ry sorrow cease; For age and want, and wo provides And over misery presides." (lines 88-96). Little wrote poetry on many subjects and in many voices. Her persona of the “Scotch Milkmaid” produced several poems that focused on the innocence of daily life and made an attempt to play on the rising popularity of the Scottish bur dialect. Some of her other works, however, utilize excellent English grammar and complex ideas, leading to the belief that Little was attempting to garner an audience by manipulating her writing to whatever she thought would be received more readily. Though she wrote an entire collection of poetry in 1792, the reception of this work was underwhelming, her main clients being her employer, her aunt, Robert Burns, and a young Countess in London she directed one of the poems to. It seems that Little’s biggest area of regret came from her dependence on Burns, and while she did not resent him as a person, and in fact admired him very much, she was still hesitant to accept that she, as a woman, was not enough to garner attention. This led her to write several poems discussing the inequality of having to rely on a man, in her case a man of the same age and class to provide her with a viewing audience. "Given to a Lady Who Asked Me to Write a Poem" covers a satirical story of a young "milkmaid poet" (Little) who was stepping out of her rightful place as a woman to write. "But then a rustic country quean To write---was e'er the like o't seen? A milkmaid poem-books to print; Mair fit she wad her dairy tent; Or labour at her spinning-wheel, An' do her wark baith swift an' weel. (50) Frae that she may some profit share, But winna frae her rhyming ware. Does she, poor silly thing, pretend The manners of our age to mend? Mad as we are, we're wise enough Still to despise sic paultry stuff." (Lines 45-56) There was a tentative understanding between the two, and although Burns acted as a subscriber to Little poetical volume and maintained an epistolary relationship, the two poets met only a few times in person. She often wrote with some bitterness about how her relationship to Burns and how her reliance upon him for the limited exposure she received for her work would effect her in the eye of the world. In "To the Public", Little confronts this idea and embraces both her persona and her need for her Muse, Burns. "A rustic damsel issues forth for lays From the dull confines of a country shade, Where she, in secret, sought a Muse's aid, But now, aspiring, hopes to gain the bays." (Lines 21-4)