The Cruel Mother Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B C D EAEA FG HH II EJ KL EE M EE NN O| The Text is given from Motherwell's Minstrelsy earlier versions being only fragmentary | A |
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| The Story has a close parallel in a Danish ballad and another popular all over Germany is a variation of the same theme but in place of the mother's final doom being merely mentioned in the German ballad she is actually carried away by the devil | B |
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| In a small group of ballads the penknife appears to be the ideal weapon for murder or suicide See the Twa Brothers and the Bonny Hind | C |
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| THE CRUEL MOTHER | D |
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| She leaned her back unto a thorn | E |
| Three three and three by three | A |
| And there she has her two babes born | E |
| Three three and thirty three | A |
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| She took frae 'bout her ribbon belt | F |
| And there she bound them hand and foot | G |
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| She has ta'en out her wee pen knife | H |
| And there she ended baith their life | H |
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| She has howked a hole baith deep and wide | I |
| She has put them in baith side by side | I |
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| She has covered them o'er wi' a marble stane | E |
| Thinking she would gang maiden hame | J |
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| As she was walking by her father's castle wa' | K |
| She saw twa pretty babes playing at the ba' | L |
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| 'O bonnie babes gin ye were mine | E |
| I would dress you up in satin fine | E |
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| 'O I would dress you in the silk | M |
| And wash you ay in morning milk ' | - |
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| 'O cruel mother we were thine | E |
| And thou made us to wear the twine | E |
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| 'O cursed mother heaven's high | N |
| And that's where thou will ne'er win nigh | N |
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| 'O cursed mother hell is deep | O |
| And there thou'll enter step by step ' | - |
Frank Sidgwick
(1)
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About The Cruel Mother
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