Analysis of To a Mountain Daisy
Robert Burns 1759 (Alloway) – 1796 (Dumfries)
Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.
Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet,
The bonie lark, companion meet,
Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet
Wi' spreck'd breast,
When upward-springing, blythe, to greet
The purpling east.
Cauld blew the bitter-biting north
Upon thy early, humble birth;
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth
Amid the storm,
Scarce rear'd above the parent-earth
Thy tender form.
The flaunting flowers our gardens yield
High shelt'ring woods an' wa's maun shield:
But thou, beneath the random bield
O' clod or stane,
Adorns the histie stibble-field
Unseen, alane.
There, in thy scanty mantle clad,
Thy snawie-bosom sun-ward spread,
Thou lifts thy unassuming head
In humble guise;
But now the share uptears thy bed,
And low thou lies!
Such is the fate of artless maid,
Sweet flow'ret of the rural shade!
By love's simplicity betray'd
And guileless trust;
Till she, like thee, all soil'd, is laid
Low i' the dust.
Such is the fate of simple bard,
On life's rough ocean luckless starr'd!
Unskilful he to note the card
Of prudent lore,
Till billows rage and gales blow hard,
And whelm him o'er!
Such fate to suffering Worth is giv'n,
Who long with wants and woes has striv'n,
By human pride or cunning driv'n
To mis'ry's brink;
Till, wrench'd of ev'ry stay but Heav'n,
He ruin'd sink!
Ev'n thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate,
That fate is thine--no distant date;
Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate,
Full on thy bloom,
Till crush'd beneath the furrow's weight
Shall be thy doom.
Scheme | ABACAC DDDXDX EFEGFG HHDIHI XJJKJK LLLMLM NNNXNB IIIOIO PPPQPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101111 111011010 1111101 1101 111111111 111 0111111 0110101 10110101 111 11010111 011 11010101 01110101 1100111 0101 11010101 1101 0101010101 1111111 11010101 1111 010111 0101 10110101 1110111 1110101 0101 1101111 0111 1101111 11110101 11010001 0101 11111111 1101 11011101 11110101 111101 1101 11010111 01110 111100111 11110111 11011101 111 1111111 1101 1111110101 11111101 1110101 1111 1101011 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,878 |
Words | 277 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 197 Views
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"To a Mountain Daisy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30594/to-a-mountain-daisy>.
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