Dressed in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with Plumes, Etc
Why, lady, wilt them bind thy lovely browWith the dread semblance of that warlike helm;That nodding plume, and wreath of various glow,That graced the chiefs of Scotia's ancient realm?
Thou know'st that Virtue is of power the source,And all her magic to thy eyes is given;We own their empire, while we feel their force,Beaming with the benignity of heaven.
The plumy helmet and the martial mienMight dignify Minerva's awful charms;But more resistless far the Idalian queen--Smiles, graces, gentleness, her only arms.
Words in this poem
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
- benignity n.
- The quality of being benign; goodness; kindness; graciousness. [OE. benignite, F. bénignité, OF. bénigneté, fr. L. benignitas. See Benign.]
- plumy a.
- Covered or adorned with plumes, or as with plumes; feathery.
- dignify v. t.
- To invest with dignity or honor; to make illustrious; to give distinction to; to exalt in rank; to honor. [OF. dignifier, fr. LL. d; L. dignus worthy + ficare (in comp.), facere to make. See Deign, and Fact.]
- resistless a.
- Having no power to resist; making no opposition.
- idalian a.
- Of or pertaining to Idalium, a mountain city in Cyprus, or to Venus, to whom it was sacred.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dressed in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with Plumes, Etc is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #8695; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Beattie, Dressed in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with Plumes, Etc, in The Minstrel and Other Poems (1771–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/beattie-minstrel/dressed-in-a-tartan-scotch-bonnet-with-plumes-etc.html, id L09614.
Form and metre
Dressed in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with Plumes, Etc is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A brow · helmA · glow · realmA
- 2 A-A- sourceA · given · forceA · heaven
- 3 ABAB mienA · charmsB · queenA · armsB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Why, lady, wilt them bind thy lovely brow | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| With the dread semblance of that warlike helm; | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| That nodding plume, and wreath of various glow, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That graced the chiefs of Scotia's ancient realm? | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Thou know'st that Virtue is of power the source, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| And all her magic to thy eyes is given; | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| We own their empire, while we feel their force, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Beaming with the benignity of heaven. | 11 | /˘··˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| The plumy helmet and the martial mien | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Might dignify Minerva's awful charms; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| But more resistless far the Idalian queen-- | 12 | ··˘/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| Smiles, graces, gentleness, her only arms. | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.