Tam O' Shanter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DDEEFFGGHHHH IIJJ JJHHIIIIKKLFMMBB DDJJ NNFFFFIIIIJJJJOO FFIIJJ PPIIJJHH QQFFFF RRSSTT BBIIUUJJVV WWFFFFXXJJXXJJBB FFXXXXWWWW JJJJWWYYXXJJWWXXJJFF WWWWWWVV JJXXWWBB JJFFIIJJXXBZ XXIIWWIIFFWWFFJJ IIBBWWFFIIBBWW BBJJWWXX HA Tale | A |
Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke | B |
Gawin Douglas | C |
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When chapman billies leave the street | D |
And drouthy neibors neibors meet | D |
As market days are wearing late | E |
And folk begin to tak the gate | E |
While we sit bousing at the nappy | F |
An' getting fou and unco happy | F |
We think na on the lang Scots miles | G |
The mosses waters slaps and stiles | G |
That lie between us and our hame | H |
Where sits our sulky sullen dame | H |
Gathering her brows like gathering storm | H |
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm | H |
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This truth fand honest Tam o' Shanter | I |
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter | I |
Auld Ayr wham ne'er a town surpasses | J |
For honest men and bonie lasses | J |
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O Tam had'st thou but been sae wise | J |
As taen thy ain wife Kate's advice | J |
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum | H |
A blethering blustering drunken blellum | H |
That frae November till October | I |
Ae market day thou was na sober | I |
That ilka melder wi' the Miller | I |
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller | I |
That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on | K |
The Smith and thee gat roarin fou on | K |
That at the Lord's house ev'n on Sunday | L |
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday | F |
She prophesied that late or soon | M |
Thou wad be found deep drown'd in Doon | M |
Or catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk | B |
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk | B |
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Ah gentle dames it gars me greet | D |
To think how mony counsels sweet | D |
How mony lengthen'd sage advices | J |
The husband frae the wife despises | J |
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But to our tale Ae market night | N |
Tam had got planted unco right | N |
Fast by the ingle bleezing finely | F |
Wi' reaming swats that drank divinely | F |
And at his elbow Souter Johnie | F |
His ancient trusty drouthy crony | F |
Tam lo'ed him like a very brither | I |
They had been fou for weeks thegither | I |
The night drave on wi' sangs an' clatter | I |
And aye the ale was growing better | I |
The Landlady and Tam grew gracious | J |
Wi' favours secret sweet and precious | J |
The Souter tauld his queerest stories | J |
The Landlord's laugh was ready chorus | J |
The storm without might rair and rustle | O |
Tam did na mind the storm a whistle | O |
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Care mad to see a man sae happy | F |
E'en drown'd himsel amang the nappy | F |
As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure | I |
The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure | I |
Kings may be blest but Tam was glorious | J |
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious | J |
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But pleasures are like poppies spread | P |
You seize the flow'r its bloom is shed | P |
Or like the snow falls in the river | I |
A moment white then melts for ever | I |
Or like the Borealis race | J |
That flit ere you can point their place | J |
Or like the Rainbow's lovely form | H |
Evanishing amid the storm | H |
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Nae man can tecther Time nor Tide | Q |
The hour approaches Tam maun ride | Q |
That hour o' night's black arch the key stane | F |
That dreary hour he mounts his beast in | F |
And sic a night he taks the road in | F |
As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in | F |
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The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last | R |
The rattling showers rose on the blast | R |
The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd | S |
Loud deep and lang the thunder bellow'd | S |
That night a child might understand | T |
The deil had business on his hand | T |
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Weel mounted on his grey mare Meg | B |
A better never leg | B |
Tam skelpit on thro' dub and mire | I |
Despising wind and rain and fire | I |
Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnett | U |
Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet | U |
Whiles glow'rin round wi' prudent cares | J |
Lest bogles catch him unawares | J |
Kirk Alloway was drawing nigh | V |
Where ghaists and houlets nightly cry | V |
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By this time he was cross the ford | W |
Where in the snaw the chapman smoor'd | W |
And past the birks and meikle stane | F |
Where drunken Charlie brak's neck bane | F |
And thro' the whins and by the cairn | F |
Where hunters fand the murder'd bairn | F |
And near the thorn aboon the well | X |
Where Mungo's mither hang'd hersel' | X |
Before him Doon pours all his floods | J |
The doubling storm roars thro' the woods | J |
The lightnings flash from pole to pole | X |
Near and more near the thunders roll | X |
When glimmering thro' the groaning trees | J |
Kirk Alloway seem'd in a bleeze | J |
Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing | B |
And loud resounded mirth and dancing | B |
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Inspiring bold John Barleycorn | F |
What dangers thou canst make us scorn | F |
Wi' tippeny we fear nae evil | X |
Wi' usquabae we'll face the devil | X |
The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle | X |
Fair play he car'd na deils a boddle | X |
But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd | W |
Till by the heel and hand admonish'd | W |
She ventur'd forward on the light | W |
And wow Tam saw an unco sight | W |
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Warlocks and witches in a dance | J |
Nae cotillon brent new frae France | J |
But hornpipes jigs strathspeys and reels | J |
Put life and mettle in their heels | J |
A winnock bunker in the east | W |
There sat auld Nick in shape o' beast | W |
A tousie tyke black grim and large | Y |
To gie them music was his charge | Y |
He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl | X |
Till roof and rafters a' did dirl | X |
Coffins stood round like open presses | J |
That shaw'd the Dead in their last dresses | J |
And by some devilish cantraip sleight | W |
Each in its cauld hand held a light | W |
By which heroic Tam was able | X |
To note upon the haly table | X |
A murderer's banes in gibbet airns | J |
Twa span lang wee unchristened bairns | J |
A thief new cutted frae a rape | F |
Wi' his last gasp his gab did gape | F |
Five tomahawks wi' blude red rusted | W |
Five scimitars wi' murder crusted | W |
A garter which a babe had strangled | W |
A knife a father's throat had mangled | W |
Whom his ain son of life bereft | W |
The grey hairs yet stack to the heft | W |
Wi' mair of horrible and awfu' | V |
Which even to name was be unlawfu' | V |
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As Tammie glowr'd amaz'd and curious | J |
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious | J |
The Piper loud and louder blew | X |
The dancers quick and quicker flew | X |
They reel'd they set they cross'd they cleekit | W |
Till ilka carlin swat and reekit | W |
And coost her duddies to the wark | B |
And linkit at it in her sark | B |
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Now Tam O Tam had they been queans | J |
A' plump and strapping in their teens | J |
Their sarks instead o' creeshie flainen | F |
Been snaw white seventeen hunder linen | F |
Thir breeks o' mine my only pair | I |
That aince were plush o' guid blue hair | I |
I wud hae gien them off my hurdies | J |
For ae blink o' the bonie burdies | J |
But wither'd beldams auld and droll | X |
Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal | X |
Louping an' flinging on a crummock | B |
I wonder did na turn thy stomach | Z |
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But Tam kent what was what fu' brawlie | X |
There was ae winsome wench and waulie | X |
That night enlisted in the core | I |
Lang after ken'd on Carrick shore | I |
For mony a beast to dead she shot | W |
And perish'd mony a bonie boat | W |
And shook baith meikle corn and bear | I |
And kept the country side in fear | I |
Her cutty sark o' Paisley harn | F |
That while a lassie she had worn | F |
In longitude tho' sorely scanty | W |
It was her best and she was vauntie | W |
Ah little ken'd thy reverend grannie | F |
That sark she coft for her wee Nannie | F |
Wi' twa pund Scots 'twas a' her riches | J |
Wad ever grac'd a dance of witches | J |
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But here my Muse her wing maun cour | I |
Sic flights are far beyond her power | I |
To sing how Nannie lap and flang | B |
A souple jade she was and strang | B |
And how Tam stood like ane bewitch'd | W |
And thought his very een enrich'd | W |
Even Satan glowr'd and fidg'd fu' fain | F |
And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main | F |
Till first ae caper syne anither | I |
Tam tint his reason a' thegither | I |
And roars out Weel done Cutty sark | B |
And in an instant all was dark | B |
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied | W |
When out the hellish legion sallied | W |
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As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke | B |
When plundering herds assail their byke | B |
As open pussie's mortal foes | J |
When pop she starts before their nose | J |
As eager runs the market crowd | W |
When Catch the thief resounds aloud | W |
So Maggie runs the witches follow | X |
Wi' mony an eldritch skreich and hollo | X |
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Ah Tam | H |
Robert Burns
(1)
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