The Cotter's Saturday Night Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEF GHGHHIHJJ KLKMMGMGG KNKNNNNNN JJJJJNJNN OPOQRKRKK STSTUVTVV WXCXXAXAA JYJYZKYKK VA2VA2A2NA2NN VB2VB2C2VB2VV VVVVVNVNN RVRVVA2VA2A2 RXRXXRXRR D2YD2JYE2YF2E2 XVXVVVVVV ARARRA2RG2G2 VVVVVNVNN TVTVVVVVV RVRVVVVVV NVV| Inscribed to Robert Aiken Esq | A |
| - | |
| Let not Ambition mock their useful toil | B |
| Their homely joys and destiny obscure | C |
| Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile | D |
| The short and simple annals of the poor | E |
| Gray Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard | F |
| - | |
| My lov'd my honour'd much respected friend | G |
| No mercenary bard his homage pays | H |
| With honest pride I scorn each selfish end | G |
| My dearest meed a friend's esteem and praise | H |
| To you I sing in simple Scottish lays | H |
| The lowly train in life's sequester'd scene | I |
| The native feelings strong the guileless ways | H |
| What Aiken in a cottage would have been | J |
| Ah tho' his worth unknown far happier there I ween | J |
| - | |
| November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh | K |
| The short'ning winter day is near a close | L |
| The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh | K |
| The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose | M |
| The toil worn Cotter frae his labour goes | M |
| This night his weekly moil is at an end | G |
| Collects his spades his mattocks and his hoes | M |
| Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend | G |
| And weary o'er the moor his course does hameward bend | G |
| - | |
| At length his lonely cot appears in view | K |
| Beneath the shelter of an aged tree | N |
| Th' expectant wee things toddlin stacher through | K |
| To meet their dad wi' flichterin noise an' glee | N |
| His wee bit ingle blinkin bonilie | N |
| His clean hearth stane his thrifty wifie's smile | N |
| The lisping infant prattling on his knee | N |
| Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile | N |
| An' makes him quite forget his labour an' his toil | N |
| - | |
| Belyve the elder bairns come drapping in | J |
| At service out amang the farmers roun' | J |
| Some ca' the pleugh some herd some tentie rin | J |
| A cannie errand to a neibor toun | J |
| Their eldest hope their Jenny woman grown | J |
| In youthfu' bloom love sparkling in her e'e | N |
| Comes hame perhaps to shew a braw new gown | J |
| Or deposite her sair won penny fee | N |
| To help her parents dear if they in hardship be | N |
| - | |
| With joy unfeign'd brothers and sisters meet | O |
| An' each for other's weelfare kindly spiers | P |
| The social hours swift wing'd unnotic'd fleet | O |
| Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears | Q |
| The parents partial eye their hopeful years | R |
| Anticipation forward points the view | K |
| The mother wi' her needle an' her sheers | R |
| Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new | K |
| The father mixes a' wi' admonition due | K |
| - | |
| Their master's an' their mistress's command | S |
| The younkers a' are warned to obey | T |
| An' mind their labours wi' an eydent hand | S |
| An' ne'er tho' out o' sight to jauk or play | T |
| An' O be sure to fear the Lord alway | U |
| An' mind your duty duly morn an' night | V |
| Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray | T |
| Implore his counsel and assisting might | V |
| They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright | V |
| - | |
| But hark a rap comes gently to the door | W |
| Jenny wha kens the meaning o' the same | X |
| Tells how a neebor lad cam o'er the moor | C |
| To do some errands and convoy her hame | X |
| The wily mother sees the conscious flame | X |
| Sparkle in Jenny's e'e and flush her cheek | A |
| Wi' heart struck anxious care inquires his name | X |
| While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak | A |
| Weel pleas'd the mother hears it's nae wild worthless rake | A |
| - | |
| Wi' kindly welcome Jenny brings him ben | J |
| A strappin youth he takes the mother's eye | Y |
| Blythe Jenny sees the visit's no ill taen | J |
| The father cracks of horses pleughs and kye | Y |
| The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy | Z |
| But blate and laithfu' scarce can weel behave | K |
| The mother wi' a woman's wiles can spy | Y |
| What maks the youth sae bashfu' an' sae grave | K |
| Weel pleas'd to think her bairn's respected like the lave | K |
| - | |
| O happy love where love like this is found | V |
| O heart felt raptures bliss beyond compare | A2 |
| I've paced much this weary mortal round | V |
| And sage experience bids me this declare | A2 |
| If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare | A2 |
| One cordial in this melancholy vale | N |
| 'Tis when a youthful loving modest pair | A2 |
| In other's arms breathe out the tender tale | N |
| Beneath the milk white thorn that scents the ev'ning gale | N |
| - | |
| Is there in human form that bears a heart | V |
| A wretch a villain lost to love and truth | B2 |
| That can with studied sly ensnaring art | V |
| Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth | B2 |
| Curse on his perjur'd arts dissembling smooth | C2 |
| Are honour virtue conscience all exil'd | V |
| Is there no pity no relenting truth | B2 |
| Points to the parents fondling o'er their child | V |
| Then paints the ruin'd maid and their distraction wild | V |
| - | |
| But now the supper crowns their simple board | V |
| The halesome parritch chief of Scotia's food | V |
| The soupe their only hawkie does afford | V |
| That yont the hallan snugly chows her cud | V |
| The dame brings forth in complimental mood | V |
| To grace the lad her weel hain'd kebbuck fell | N |
| An' aft he's prest an' aft he ca's it guid | V |
| The frugal wifie garrulous will tell | N |
| How 'twas a towmond auld sin' lint was i' the bell | N |
| - | |
| The cheerfu' supper done wi' serious face | R |
| They round the ingle form a circle wide | V |
| The sire turns o'er with patriarchal grace | R |
| The big ha' Bible ance his father's pride | V |
| His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside | V |
| His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare | A2 |
| Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide | V |
| He wales a portion with judicious care | A2 |
| And Let us worship God he says with solemn air | A2 |
| - | |
| They chant their artless notes in simple guise | R |
| They tune their hearts by far the noblest aim | X |
| Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise | R |
| Or plaintive Martyrs worthy of the name | X |
| Or noble Elgin beets the heaven ward flame | X |
| The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays | R |
| Compar'd with these Italian trills are tame | X |
| The tickl'd ear no heart felt raptures raise | R |
| Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise | R |
| - | |
| The priest like father reads the sacred page | D2 |
| How Abram was the friend of God on high | Y |
| Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage | D2 |
| With Amalek's ungracious progeny | J |
| Or how the royal bard did groaning lie | Y |
| Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire | E2 |
| Or Job's pathetic plaint and wailing cry | Y |
| Or rapt Isaiah's wild seraphic fire | F2 |
| Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre | E2 |
| - | |
| Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme | X |
| How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed | V |
| How He who bore in Heaven the second name | X |
| Had not on earth whereon to lay His head | V |
| How His first followers and servants sped | V |
| The precepts sage they wrote to many a land | V |
| How he who lone in Patmos banished | V |
| Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand | V |
| And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heaven's command | V |
| - | |
| Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King | A |
| The saint the father and the husband prays | R |
| Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing | A |
| That thus they all shall meet in future days | R |
| There ever bask in uncreated rays | R |
| No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear | A2 |
| Together hymning their Creator's praise | R |
| In such society yet still more dear | G2 |
| While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere | G2 |
| - | |
| Compar'd with this how poor Religion's pride | V |
| In all the pomp of method and of art | V |
| When men display to congregations wide | V |
| Devotion's ev'ry grace except the heart | V |
| The Pow'r incens'd the pageant will desert | V |
| The pompous strain the sacerdotal stole | N |
| But haply in some cottage far apart | V |
| May hear well pleas'd the language of the soul | N |
| And in His Book of Life the inmates poor enrol | N |
| - | |
| Then homeward all take off their sev'ral way | T |
| The youngling cottagers retire to rest | V |
| The parent pair their secret homage pay | T |
| And proffer up to Heav'n the warm request | V |
| That He who stills the raven's clam'rous nest | V |
| And decks the lily fair in flow'ry pride | V |
| Would in the way His wisdom sees the best | V |
| For them and for their little ones provide | V |
| But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside | V |
| - | |
| From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs | R |
| That makes her lov'd at home rever'd abroad | V |
| Princes and lords are but the breath of kings | R |
| An honest man's the noblest work of God | V |
| And certes in fair Virtue's heavenly road | V |
| The cottage leaves the palace far behind | V |
| What is a lordling's pomp a cumbrous load | V |
| Disguising oft the wretch of human kind | V |
| Studied in arts of hell in wickedness refin'd | V |
| - | |
| O Scotia my dear my native soil | N |
| For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent | V |
| Long may thy hardy sons of rustic to | V |
Robert Burns
(1)
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About The Cotter's Saturday Night
The Cotter's Saturday Night is a poem by Robert Burns. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
