Analysis of Ah, Woe Is Me, My Mother Dear

Robert Burns 1759 (Alloway) – 1796 (Dumfries)



Ah, woe is me, my mother dear!
A man of strife ye've born me:
For sair contention I maun bear;
They hate, revile, and scorn me.

I ne'er could lend on bill or band,
That five per cent. might blest me;
And borrowing, on the tither hand,
The deil a ane wad trust me.

Yet I, a coin-denied wight,
By Fortune quite discarded;
Ye see how I am, day and night,
By lad and lass blackguarded!


Scheme XAXA BABA CXCB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11111101 01111111 11010111 1101011 11111111 1111111 01001011 0101111 1101011 1101010 11111101 11011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 378
Words 78
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 94
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

24 sec read
471

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. more…

All Robert Burns poems | Robert Burns Books

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