On Glenriddell's Fox Breaking His Chain Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDDDEEFG HHII JJGGKLDD MMNNOP QQRRDDSSGGEE DDTTTTGGTTTTGG RRUVOODD W| THOU Liberty thou art my theme | A |
| Not such as idle poets dream | A |
| Who trick thee up a heathen goddess | B |
| That a fantastic cap and rod has | C |
| Such stale conceits are poor and silly | D |
| I paint thee out a Highland filly | D |
| A sturdy stubborn handsome dapple | D |
| As sleek's a mouse as round's an apple | D |
| That when thou pleasest canst do wonders | E |
| But when thy luckless rider blunders | E |
| Or if thy fancy should demur there | F |
| Wilt break thy neck ere thou go further | G |
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| - | |
| These things premised I sing a Fox | H |
| Was caught among his native rocks | H |
| And to a dirty kennel chained | I |
| How he his liberty regained | I |
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| - | |
| Glenriddell Whig without a stain | J |
| A Whig in principle and grain | J |
| Could'st thou enslave a free born creature | G |
| A native denizen of Nature | G |
| How could'st thou with a heart so good | K |
| A better ne'er was sluiced with blood | L |
| Nail a poor devil to a tree | D |
| That ne'er did harm to thine or thee | D |
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| - | |
| The staunchest Whig Glenriddell was | M |
| Quite frantic in his country's cause | M |
| And oft was Reynard's prison passing | N |
| And with his brother Whigs canvassing | N |
| The Rights of Men the Powers of Women | O |
| With all the dignity of Freemen | P |
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| - | |
| Sir Reynard daily heard debates | Q |
| Of Princes' Kings' and Nations' fates | Q |
| With many rueful bloody stories | R |
| Of Tyrants Jacobites and Tories | R |
| From liberty how angels fell | D |
| That now are galley slaves in hell | D |
| How Nimrod first the trade began | S |
| Of binding Slavery's chains on Man | S |
| How fell Semiramis G d d mn her | G |
| Did first with sacrilegious hammer | G |
| All ills till then were trivial matters | E |
| For Man dethron'd forge hen peck fetters | E |
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| - | |
| How Xerxes that abandoned Tory | D |
| Thought cutting throats was reaping glory | D |
| Until the stubborn Whigs of Sparta | T |
| Taught him great Nature's Magna Charta | T |
| How mighty Rome her fiat hurl'd | T |
| Resistless o'er a bowing world | T |
| And kinder than they did desire | G |
| Polish'd mankind with sword and fire | G |
| With much too tedious to relate | T |
| Of ancient and of modern date | T |
| But ending still how Billy Pitt | T |
| Unlucky boy with wicked wit | T |
| Has gagg'd old Britain drain'd her coffer | G |
| As butchers bind and bleed a heifer | G |
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| Thus wily Reynard by degrees | R |
| In kennel listening at his ease | R |
| Suck'd in a mighty stock of knowledge | U |
| As much as some folks at a College | V |
| Knew Britain's rights and constitution | O |
| Her aggrandisement diminution | O |
| How fortune wrought us good from evil | D |
| Let no man then despise the Devil | D |
| As who should say I never can need him ' | - |
| Since we to scoundrels owe our freedom | W |
Robert Burns
(1)
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About On Glenriddell's Fox Breaking His Chain
On Glenriddell's Fox Breaking His Chain is a poem by Robert Burns. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.