Tam O' Shanter. - A Tale. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CCDDEEFFGGGG HHIIIIGGHHHHJJKELLAA CCIIMMEEEEHHHHIIIINN EEHHII OOHHIIGGPPEEEE QQRRSS AAHHTUIIVV UUEEEEWWIIWWIIAA EEWWWWUUUUIIIIUUXXWW IIUUWWIIEEUUUUUUVV IIWWUUAA IIEEHHII WWAY WWHHUUHHEEUU EEIIHHAAUUEEHHAAUU AAIIUUWW EEEEAAIIAAUUWWWWEE UUUUHHOf brownys and of bogilis full is this buke | A |
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Gawin Douglas | B |
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When chapman billies leave the street | C |
And drouthy neebors neebors meet | C |
As market days are wearing late | D |
An' folk begin to tak' the gate | D |
While we sit bousing at the nappy | E |
An' gettin' fou and unco happy | E |
We think na on the lang Scots miles | F |
The mosses waters slaps and stiles | F |
That lie between us and our hame | G |
Where sits our sulky sullen dame | G |
Gathering her brows like gathering storm | G |
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm | G |
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This truth fand honest Tam O' Shanter | H |
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter | H |
Auld Ayr wham ne'er a town surpasses | I |
For honest men and bonny lasses | I |
O Tam hadst thou but been sae wise | I |
As ta'en thy ain wife Kate's advice | I |
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum | G |
A blethering blustering drunken blellum | G |
That frae November till October | H |
Ae market day thou wasna sober | H |
That ilka melder wi' the miller | H |
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller | H |
That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on | J |
The smith and thee gat roaring fou on | J |
That at the Lord's house ev'n on Sunday | K |
Thou drank wi' Kirton Jean till Monday | E |
She prophesy'd that late or soon | L |
Thou would be found deep drown'd in Doon | L |
Or catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk | A |
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk | A |
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Ah gentle dames it gars me greet | C |
To think how mony counsels sweet | C |
How mony lengthen'd sage advices | I |
The husband frae the wife despises | I |
But to our tale Ae market night | M |
Tam had got planted unco right | M |
Fast by an ingle bleezing finely | E |
Wi' reaming swats that drank divinely | E |
And at his elbow Souter Johnny | E |
His ancient trusty drouthy crony | E |
Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither | H |
They had been fou' for weeks thegither | H |
The night drave on wi' sangs an' clatter | H |
And ay the ale was growing better | H |
The landlady and Tam grew gracious | I |
Wi' favors secret sweet and precious | I |
The Souter tauld his queerest stories | I |
The landlord's laugh was ready chorus | I |
The storm without might rair and rustle | N |
Tam did na mind the storm a whistle | N |
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Care mad to see a man sae happy | E |
E'en drown'd himself amang the nappy | E |
As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure | H |
The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure | H |
Kings may be blest but Tam was glorious | I |
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious | I |
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But pleasures are like poppies spread | O |
You seize the flow'r its bloom is shed | O |
Or like the snow falls in the river | H |
A moment white then melts for ever | H |
Or like the borealis race | I |
That flit ere you can point their place | I |
Or like the rainbow's lovely form | G |
Evanishing amid the storm | G |
Nae man can tether time or tide | P |
The hour approaches Tam maun ride | P |
That hour o' night's black arch the key stane | E |
That dreary hour he mounts his beast in | E |
And sic a night he taks the road in | E |
As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in | E |
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The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last | Q |
The rattling show'rs rose on the blast | Q |
The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd | R |
Loud deep and lang the thunder bellow'd | R |
That night a child might understand | S |
The de'il had business on his hand | S |
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Weel mounted on his gray mare Meg | A |
A better never lifted leg | A |
Tam skelpit on thro' dub and mire | H |
Despising wind and rain and fire | H |
Whiles holding fast his guid blue bonnet | T |
Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet | U |
Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares | I |
Lest bogles catch him unawares | I |
Kirk Alloway was drawing nigh | V |
Whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry | V |
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By this time he was cross the foord | U |
Whare in the snaw the chapman smoor'd | U |
And past the birks and meikle stane | E |
Where drunken Charlie brak's neck bane | E |
And thro' the whins and by the cairn | E |
Where hunters fand the murder'd bairn | E |
And near the thorn aboon the well | W |
Where Mungo's mither hang'd hersel' | W |
Before him Doon pours all his floods | I |
The doubling storm roars thro' the woods | I |
The lightnings flash from pole to pole | W |
Near and more the thunders roll | W |
When glimmering thro' the groaning trees | I |
Kirk Alloway seem'd in a bleeze | I |
Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing | A |
And loud resounded mirth and dancing | A |
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Inspiring bold John Barleycorn | E |
What dangers thou canst make us scorn | E |
Wi' tippenny we fear nae evil | W |
Wi' usquabae we'll face the devil | W |
The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle | W |
Fair play he car'd nae deils a boddle | W |
But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd | U |
'Till by the heel and hand admonish'd | U |
She ventur'd forward on the light | U |
And wow Tam saw an unco sight | U |
Warlocks and witches in a dance | I |
Nae cotillion brent new frae France | I |
But hornpipes jigs strathspeys and reels | I |
Put life and mettle in their heels | I |
A winnock bunker in the east | U |
There sat auld Nick in shape o' beast | U |
A towzie tyke black grim and large | X |
To gie them music was his charge | X |
He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl | W |
Till roof and rafters a' did dirl | W |
Coffins stood round like open presses | I |
That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses | I |
And by some devilish cantrip slight | U |
Each in its cauld hand held a light | U |
By which heroic Tam was able | W |
To note upon the haly table | W |
A murderer's banes in gibbet airns | I |
Twa span lang wee unchristen'd bairns | I |
A thief new cutted frae a rape | E |
Wi' his last gasp his gab did gape | E |
Five tomahawks wi' bluid red rusted | U |
Five scimitars wi' murder crusted | U |
A garter which a babe had strangled | U |
A knife a father's throat had mangled | U |
Whom his ain son o' life bereft | U |
The gray hairs yet stack to the heft | U |
Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu' | V |
Which ev'n to name would be unlawfu' | V |
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As Tammie glowr'd amaz'd and curious | I |
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious | I |
The piper loud and louder blew | W |
The dancers quick and quicker flew | W |
They reel'd they set they cross'd they cleekit | U |
'Till ilka carlin swat and reekit | U |
And coost her duddies to the wark | A |
And linket at it in her sark | A |
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Now Tam O Tam had thae been queans | I |
A' plump and strapping in their teens | I |
Their sarks instead o' creeshie flannen | E |
Been snaw white seventeen hunder linen | E |
Thir breeks o' mine my only pair | H |
That ance were plush o' guid blue hair | H |
I wad hae gi'en them off my hurdies | I |
For ae blink o' the bonnie burdies | I |
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But wither'd beldams auld and droll | W |
Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal | W |
Lowping an' flinging on a cummock | A |
I wonder didna turn thy stomach | Y |
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But Tam kenn'd what was what fu' brawlie | W |
There was a winsome wench and walie | W |
That night enlisted in the core | H |
Lang after kenn'd on Carrick shore | H |
For mony a beast to dead she shot | U |
And perish'd mony a bonnie boat | U |
And shook baith meikle corn and bear | H |
And kept the country side in fear | H |
Her cutty sark o' Paisley harn | E |
That while a lassie she had worn | E |
In longitude tho' sorely scanty | U |
It was her best and she was vauntie | U |
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Ah little kenn'd the reverend grannie | E |
That sark she coft for her wee Nannie | E |
Wi' twa pund Scots 'twas a' her riches | I |
Wad ever grac'd a dance of witches | I |
But here my muse her wing maun cour | H |
Sic flights are far beyond her pow'r | H |
To sing how Nannie lap and flang | A |
A souple jade she was and strung | A |
And how Tam stood like ane bewitch'd | U |
And thought his very een enrich'd | U |
Even Satan glowr'd and fidg'd fu' fain | E |
And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main | E |
'Till first ae caper syne anither | H |
Tam tint his reason a' thegither | H |
And roars out Weel done Cutty sark | A |
And in an instant all was dark | A |
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied | U |
When out the hellish legion sallied | U |
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As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke | A |
When plundering herds assail their byke | A |
As open pussie's mortal foes | I |
When pop she starts before their nose | I |
As eager runs the market crowd | U |
When Catch the thief resounds aloud | U |
So Maggie runs the witches follow | W |
Wi' mony an eldritch screech and hollow | W |
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Ah Tam Ah Tam thou'll get thy fairin' | E |
In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin' | E |
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin' | E |
Kate soon will be a woefu' woman | E |
Now do thy speedy utmost Meg | A |
And win the key stane of the brig | A |
There at them thou thy tail may toss | I |
A running stream they darena cross | I |
But ere the key stane she could make | A |
The fient a tail she had to shake | A |
For Nannie far before the rest | U |
Hard upon noble Maggie prest | U |
And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle | W |
But little wist she Maggie's mettle | W |
Ae spring brought off her master hale | W |
But left behind her ain gray tail | W |
The carlin claught her by the rump | E |
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump | E |
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Now wha this tale o' truth shall read | U |
Ilk man and mother's son take heed | U |
Whene'er to drink you are inclin'd | U |
Or cutty sarks run in your mind | U |
Think ye may buy the joys o'er dear | H |
Remember Tam O' Shanter's mare | H |
Robert Burns
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