Additional Stanzas
She mourns, sweet tuneful youth, thy hapless fate;Tho’ all the powers of song thy fancy fired,Yet Luxury and Wealth lay by in state,And, thankless, starv’d what they so much admired.
This tribute, with a tear, now givesA brother Bard—he can no more bestow:But dear to fame thy Song immortal lives,A nobler monument than Art can shew.
Words in this poem
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- thankless a.
- Not acknowledging favors; not expressing thankfulness; unthankful; ungrateful.
- admired a.
- Regarded with wonder and delight; highly prized; as, an admired poem.
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Additional Stanzas is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Project Gutenberg ebook #1279; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Burns, Additional Stanzas, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/additional-stanzas.html, id L03070.
Form and metre
Additional Stanzas is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 12% 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 ABAB fateA · firedB · stateA · admiredB
- 2 A-A- givesA · bestow · livesA · shew
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She mourns, sweet tuneful youth, thy hapless fate; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Tho’ all the powers of song thy fancy fired, | 10 | ···/···/˘/ |
| Yet Luxury and Wealth lay by in state, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And, thankless, starv’d what they so much admired. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| This tribute, with a tear, now gives | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A brother Bard—he can no more bestow: | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| But dear to fame thy Song immortal lives, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| A nobler monument than Art can shew. | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
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.