The best paraphrase of the opening lines from the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns is this one: Poor, little scared thing! How panicked you are!
The opening lines are: Wee, sleekit, cow’rin’, tim’rous beastie, O, what a panic’s in thy breastie! - this basically means: Little thing, there is a lot of fear in your breast - which means that the mouse is small and afraid.
