Analysis of To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
Robert Burns 1759 (Alloway) – 1796 (Dumfries)
Ha! whare ye gaun, ye crowlan ferlie!
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.
Ye ugly, creepan, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her,
Sae fine a Lady!
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.
Swith! in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whare horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.
Now haud you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rels, snug and tight,
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it,
The verra tapmost, towrin height
O' Miss's bonnet.
My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump an' grey as onie grozet:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,
I'd gie you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum!
I wad na been surpriz'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy;
Or aiblins some bit duddie boy,
On's wylecoat;
But Miss's fine Lunardi, fye!
How daur ye do't?
O Jenny, dinna toss your head,
An' set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin!
Thae winks and finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin!
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
And ev'n Devotion!
Scheme | AAABAB CCCDCD AAAEAE FFFXFX XDDGDG HIIDHD JDXKJK LLLMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Burns stanza (42%) |
Metre | 1111111 110111 11111110 1101 11111111 1101 110111 010111110 111111010 11010 11101110 11110 101111 11110101 11101010 01010 111111010 1110 111111111 0101101 11111111 111111 01111 1110 111111111 1111111 111101001 1111 1111010111 1111 1111111 1111111 111111 11 11111 11111 1101111 1111001 1101111 0110 11010111 1101 111110111 11111011 111101011 11010 1101111111 011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,478 |
Words | 276 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 139 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 193 Views
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"To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30593/to-a-louse%2C-on-seeing-one-on-a-lady%27s-bonnet-at-church>.
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