For more on Little, see Leith Davis, “Gender and the Nation in the Work of Robert Burns and Janet Little,” Studies In English Literature (Rice) 38.4 (1998), 621-645; Moira Ferguson, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets: Nation, Class, and Gender (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995); Donna Landry, The Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women's Poetry in Britain, 1739-1796 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Anne Milne, “Dogs And The 'Talking Animal Syndrome' In Janet Little's 'From Snipe, A Favourite Dog, To His Master' (1791),” Scottish Studies Review 4.1 (2003), 69-81.

Annotated List of Works

The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid. Air: Printed by John and Peter Wilson, 1792.

This volume of 53 poems is the only published material during the life of Janet Little. She includes poems of many different occasions over the span of a few years all collected into one work. Most of her poems are fairly short. Her compilation of poems begins with a list of some 650 subscribers listed alphabetically.

Annotated selection of poems from The Poetical Works of Janet Little, and The Scotch Milkmaid

“On A Visit to Mr. Burns”

This poem was mentioned in a letter from Mrs. Dunlop to Burns dated March 30th, 1791. The occasion of this piece occurs when Janet Little goes to Ellisland, Dumfries to visit Robert Burns but is unable to meet with him because he has been thrown from his horse and broken his arm for the third time. The poem begins with a quatrain composed entirely of questions wondering if the place the narrator is visiting is truly the home of the poet she dares to meet. She recounts how over many nights she has dreamed of finally meeting Mr. Burns, and how the thought was constantly at the back of her mind. As soon as she arrives, he hears of Burns being thrown from his horse, Pegasus. As his wife cries at her husband’s misfortune it dawns on the speaker that she will not be able to meet with Burns. She ponders life’s “[alternating] joy and wo” as Burns is ushered into his home and away from her greeting.

“Upon a Young Lady’s Breaking a Looking-Glass”

This poem is also mentioned in Mrs. Dunlop’s letters. Mrs. Dunlop writes to Burns:

Tell me what you think of Jenny Little's “Looking Glass”. The occasion on which she wrote it was to convince a young lady who doubted the authenticity of her having wrote something else she had shewed her and asked her to write on a given subject. She said she had never done so, but, since she wished it, would try if she would give her one. She told her she had that forenoon broke a glass she was vext about and bid her celebrate it.

The poem, written in quatrains, begins with young Delia tripping as she ran around a room and breaking a looking-glass. The looking-glass is described as ancient and capable of perfectly reflecting “Th' embrio of a pimple; / The rheum on a neglected eye; / The hoary hair or wrinkle”. The mirror had taken up a place on the chimney for a long time; so much so that the place it once occupied now seems empty, but now the mirror is busted into twenty pieces. The narrator tells Delia to lament her fate for breaking the looking-glass as that comes with bad fortune, to which Delia replies by crying and asserting she will spend fifteen years in repentance. The speaker tells her to have hope, act prudently, and live virtuously as well as to not be charmed by young men “for mind our sex is ever frail, / And brittle as our glasses.”

Scholarship on Janet Little

Davis, Leith. "Gender and the Nation in the Work of Robert Burns and Janet Little." Studies In English Literature (Rice) 38.4 (1998): 621-645.

In his article, Davis focuses on how gender in the work of Robert Burns and Janet Little challenges the idea of the nation. He details Burn's unraveling of the holistic nation through his ambiguous deployment of the image of woman and his use of the figure of woman as a symbol of the nation in “The Vision.” Davis also explores Little’s mutual construction of gender and national identity as well as her alignment with Burns.

Ferguson, Moira. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets: Nation, Class, and Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1995.

Ferguson dedicates a chapter of her work to Janet Little’s relationship with Robert Burns. She examines Little’s attitude towards Burns’ literary and social reputation as well as how Little’s texts shape themselves in relationship to Burns’. She says that Little’s “Commendatory tributes to Robert Burns enhance her own cultural standing while she extends mandated politeness to patrons and employers from the middle class and gentry. At the same time, Little questions Burns’s relationship with women by obliquely critiquing power-based gender relations in his seemingly benign conventional lyrics and poems” (92). Ferguson includes excerpts of correspondence between Little and Burns as well as Dunlop and Burns, revealing the complex relationship between the patron and both poets in addition to the relationship between Burns and Little.

Landry, Donna. The Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women's Poetry in Britain, 1739-1796. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1990.

Landry devotes an entire chapter discussing Little’s contribution to Scottish poetics. She explores Little’s use of Scots and English in her verses, and Little’s significant representations of Robert Burns and their relationship as fellow working-class Scottish poets. According to Landry, Burns’ self-centeredness and problematic portrayals of women provide an important context for Little’s representations of Burns. Landry also observes Little’s search for female literary mentors as closely related to her fraught relationship with Burns. She observes female literary community in the “Nell” correspondence poems and significant problems and dissatisfaction between female heroines and their lovers.

Milne, Anne. "Dogs And The 'Talking Animal Syndrome' In Janet Little's 'From Snipe, A Favourite Dog, To His Master' (1791)." Scottish Studies Review 4.1 (2003): 69-81.

In her article, Milne discusses the talking animal syndrome in the poem. She also offers some of Little’s personal background. The main focus of the article pertains to the talking animal.

This page assisted by Kaitlyn Johnson, Georgia Southern University