Caesar
Haith, lad, ye little ken about it:For Britain’s guid! guid faith! I doubt it.Say rather, gaun as Premiers lead him:An’ saying ay or no’s they bid him:At operas an’ plays parading,Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading:Or maybe, in a frolic daft,To Hague or Calais takes a waft,To mak a tour an’ tak a whirl,To learn bon ton, an’ see the worl’.
There, at Vienna, or Versailles,He rives his father’s auld entails;Or by Madrid he takes the rout,To thrum guitars an’ fecht wi’ nowt;Or down Italian vista startles,
Whore-hunting amang groves o’ myrtles:Then bowses drumlie German-water,To mak himsel look fair an’ fatter,An’ clear the consequential sorrows,Love-gifts of Carnival signoras.
For Britain’s guid! for her destruction!Wi’ dissipation, feud, an’ faction.
Words in this poem
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- daft a.
- Stupid; folish; idiotic; also, delirious; insance; as, he has gone daft. [OE. daft, deft, deft, stupid; prob. the same word as E. deft. See Deft.]
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- tour n.
- A going round; a circuit; hence, a journey in a circuit; a prolonged circuitous journey; a comprehensive excursion; as, the tour of Europe; the tour of France or England. [F. tour. See Turn, v. t.]
- auld a.
- Old; as, Auld Reekie (old smoky), i. e., Edinburgh. [See Old.]
- thrum n.
- One of the ends of weaver's threads; hence, any soft, short threads or tufts resembling these. [OE. thrum, throm; akin to OD. drom, D. dreum, G. trumm, lump, end, fragment, OHG. drum end, Icel. edge, brim, and L. terminus a limit, term. Cf. Term.]
- vista n.
- A view; especially, a view through or between intervening objects, as trees; a view or prospect through an avenue, or the like; hence, the trees or other objects that form the avenue. [It., sight, view, fr. vedere, p. p. visto, veduto, to see, fr. L. videre, visum. See View, Vision.]
- whore n.
- A woman who practices unlawful sexual commerce with men, especially one who prostitutes her body for hire; a prostitute; a harlot. Wyclif. [OE. hore, AS. h; akin to D. hoer, hoere, G. hure, OHG. huora, huorra, Icel. h, Dan. hore, Sw. hora, Goth. h an adulterer, AS. h adultery, OHG. huor, and probabl]
- consequential a.
- Following as a consequence, result, or logical inference; consequenment.
- dissipation n.
- The act of dissipating or dispersing; a state of dispersion or separation; dispersion; waste. [L. dissipatio: cf. F. dissipation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Caesar 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, Caesar, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/caesar-3.html, id L03003.
Form and metre
Caesar is 22 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCC---- itA · itA · himB · himB · paradingC · masqueradingC · daft · waft · whirl · worl
- 2 AA--A versaillesA · entailsA · rout · nowt · startlesA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Haith, lad, ye little ken about it: | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| For Britain’s guid! guid faith! I doubt it. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Say rather, gaun as Premiers lead him: | 9 | ·/˘··˘/·· |
| An’ saying ay or no’s they bid him: | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| At operas an’ plays parading, | 8 | ·/˘··˘/˘ |
| Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading: | 9 | /˘/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Or maybe, in a frolic daft, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To Hague or Calais takes a waft, | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| To mak a tour an’ tak a whirl, | 8 | ········ |
| To learn bon ton, an’ see the worl’. | 8 | ········ |
| There, at Vienna, or Versailles, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| He rives his father’s auld entails; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Or by Madrid he takes the rout, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| To thrum guitars an’ fecht wi’ nowt; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Or down Italian vista startles, | 9 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Whore-hunting amang groves o’ myrtles: | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Then bowses drumlie German-water, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To mak himsel look fair an’ fatter, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| An’ clear the consequential sorrows, | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| Love-gifts of Carnival signoras. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For Britain’s guid! for her destruction! | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Wi’ dissipation, feud, an’ faction. | 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.