Poor Mailie's Elegy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCAC DEECDC FFFCFC GGGCGC HHHCHC GGGCGC IIICIC JJJCJC| Lament in rhyme lament in prose | A |
| Wi' saut tears tricklin down your nose | A |
| Our bardie's fate is at a close | B |
| Past a' remead | C |
| The last sad cape stane o' his woes | A |
| Poor Mailie's dead | C |
| - | |
| It's no the loss o' warl's gear | D |
| That could sae bitter draw the tear | E |
| Or mak our bardie dowie wear | E |
| The mourning weed | C |
| He's lost a friend an' neebor dear | D |
| In Mailie dead | C |
| - | |
| Thro' a' the town she trotted by him | F |
| A lang half mile she could descry him | F |
| Wi kindly bleat when she did spy him | F |
| She ran wi' speed | C |
| A friend mair faithfu' ne'er cam nigh him | F |
| Than Mailie dead | C |
| - | |
| I wat she was a sheep o' sense | G |
| An' could behave hersel' wi' mense | G |
| I'll say't she never brak a fence | G |
| Thro' thievish greed | C |
| Our bardie lanely keeps the spence | G |
| Sin' Mailie's dead | C |
| - | |
| Or if he wanders up the howe | H |
| Her livin image in her yowe | H |
| Comes bleating till him owre the knowe | H |
| For bits o' bread | C |
| An' down the briny pearls rowe | H |
| For Mailie dead | C |
| - | |
| She was nae get o' moorland tips | G |
| Wi' tauted ket an' hairy hips | G |
| For her forbears were brought in ships | G |
| Frae 'yont the Tweed | C |
| A bonier fleesh ne'er cross'd the clips | G |
| Than Mailie's dead | C |
| - | |
| Wae worth the man wha first did shape | I |
| That vile wanchancie thing a raip | I |
| It maks guid fellows girn an' gape | I |
| Wi' chokin dread | C |
| An' Robin's bonnet wave wi' crape | I |
| For Mailie dead | C |
| - | |
| O a' ye bards on bonie Doon | J |
| An' wha on Ayr your chanters tune | J |
| Come join the melancholious croon | J |
| O' Robin's reed | C |
| His heart will never get aboon | J |
| His Mailie's dead | C |
Robert Burns
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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