Analysis of Human Natur'.

David Rorie 1867 – 1946



As I gang roon' the kintra-side
Amang the young an' auld,
I marvel at the things I see
An' a' the lees I'm tauld.
There's Mistress-weel, I winna say:
I wadna hurt her pride,-
But speerits hae a guff, gude-wife,
Nae peppermints can hide.

Then there's the carle I said maun bide
In bed or I cam' back,
An' frae the road I saw him fine
Gang dodgin' roond a stack;
I heard him pechin' up the stair
As I cam' in the door-
But Faith! My lad was in his bed
An' ettlin' for to snore.

An' here's a chap that needs a peel,
He chaws it roon' an' roon',
He's narra' i' the swalla', an'
He canna get it doon.
Yet whiles his swalla's wide eneuch,
The muckle ne'er-dae-weel,
Gin it had aye been narra'er
He hadna nott the peel.

Ye tend them a', baith great an' sma',
Frae cradle to the grave,
An' add to sorrows o' your ain
The tribbles o' the lave,
An' yet ye find they're a' the same,
When human natur's watched,
It's no' ill deeds they haud as wrang-
The sin o't 's when they're catched.


Scheme AXXAXAXA ABCBDEXE FCXCXFDF GHCHGXBA
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011 10111 11010111 100111 1101111 11101 1110111 1111 110101111 011111 11011111 11101 11110101 111001 11111011 11111 11011101 111111 111011 11111 111111 010111 111111 11101 11101111 110101 11110111 010101 11111001 11011 11111111 01111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 953
Words 198
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 177
Words per stanza (avg) 49
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
8

David Rorie

David Rorie, MDCM, DPH (1867 – 18 February 1946) was a doctor, folklorist and poet writing in his native language, Scots. As a poet he is known chiefly for his authorship of the well-known song, 'The Lum Hat wantin' the Croon', (sung in Ladysmith during the siege, and widely amongst Scots troops in the Great War) and a volume of collected poems which appeared under that title in 1935. Educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities, where he gained an MD in 1908, he was for some years joint Editor of the Caledonian Medical Journal, contributing numerous articles to that journal as well as to the Edinburgh Medical Journal and the British Medical Journal, and becoming a well-known authority on matters of public health in Scotland. As an enthusiastic collector and editor of Scottish folklore he is known for his interest in folk-medicine and his authorship of Folklore of the Mining Folk of Fife (Folklore Society, 1912) - this last stemming no doubt from his period as a busy doctor in Bowhill (Cardenden), FifeDr Rorie served in the RAMC during the 1914-18 War, attained the rank of colonel, and was awarded the DSO and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.  more…

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