Analysis of Poor Mailie's Elegy
Robert Burns 1759 (Alloway) – 1796 (Dumfries)
Lament in rhyme, lament in prose,
Wi' saut tears tricklin down your nose;
Our bardie's fate is at a close,
Past a' remead!
The last, sad cape-stane o' his woes;
Poor Mailie's dead!
It's no the loss o' warl's gear,
That could sae bitter draw the tear,
Or mak our bardie, dowie, wear
The mourning weed:
He's lost a friend an' neebor dear
In Mailie dead.
Thro' a' the town she trotted by him;
A lang half-mile she could descry him;
Wi kindly bleat, when she did spy him,
She ran wi' speed:
A friend mair faithfu' ne'er cam nigh him,
Than Mailie dead.
I wat she was a sheep o' sense,
An' could behave hersel' wi' mense:
I'll say't, she never brak a fence,
Thro' thievish greed.
Our bardie, lanely, keeps the spence
Sin' Mailie's dead.
Or, if he wanders up the howe,
Her livin image in her yowe
Comes bleating till him, owre the knowe,
For bits o' bread;
An' down the briny pearls rowe
For Mailie dead.
She was nae get o' moorland tips,
Wi' tauted ket, an' hairy hips;
For her forbears were brought in ships,
Frae 'yont the Tweed.
A bonier fleesh ne'er cross'd the clips
Than Mailie's dead.
Wae worth the man wha first did shape
That vile, wanchancie thing - a raip!
It maks guid fellows girn an' gape,
Wi' chokin dread;
An' Robin's bonnet wave wi' crape
For Mailie dead.
O, a' ye bards on bonie Doon!
An' wha on Ayr your chanters tune!
Come, join the melancholious croon
O' Robin's reed!
His heart will never get aboon -
His Mailie's dead!
Scheme | aaxbab cddbcb eeebeb fafbfb gggbxB hhhbhb iiibiB jjjbjb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010101 1111111 10111101 101 01111111 111 1101111 11110101 11101101 0101 1101111 011 100111011 01111111 110111111 1111 01111111 111 11110111 1101111 111110101 111 1011101 111 11110101 0110001 1111101 1111 110111 111 1111111 1111101 1010101 1101 01011101 111 11011111 111101 11110111 111 11010111 111 1011111 1111111 11011 1101 1111011 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,450 |
Words | 272 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 89 Views
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"Poor Mailie's Elegy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30549/poor-mailie%27s-elegy>.
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