Caesar
Lord, man, were ye but whiles whare I am,The gentles, ye wad ne’er envy them!
It’s true, they need na starve or sweat,Thro’ winter’s cauld, or simmer’s heat:They’ve nae sair wark to craze their banes,An’ fill auld age wi’ grips an’ granes:But human bodies are sic fools,For a’ their colleges an’ schools,That when nae real ills perplex them,They mak enow themsel’s to vex them;An’ aye the less they hae to sturt them,In like proportion, less will hurt them.
A country fellow at the pleugh,His acre’s till’d, he’s right eneugh;A country girl at her wheel,Her dizzen’s dune, she’s unco weel;But gentlemen, an’ ladies warst,Wi’ ev’n-down want o’ wark are curst.They loiter, lounging, lank an’ lazy;Tho’ deil-haet ails them, yet uneasy;Their days insipid, dull, an’ tasteless;Their nights unquiet, lang, an’ restless.
An’ev’n their sports, their balls an’ races,Their galloping through public places,There’s sic parade, sic pomp, an’ art,The joy can scarcely reach the heart.
The men cast out in party-matches,Then sowther a’ in deep debauches.Ae night they’re mad wi’ drink an’ whoring,Niest day their life is past enduring.
The ladies arm-in-arm in clusters,As great an’ gracious a’ as sisters;But hear their absent thoughts o’ ither,They’re a’ run-deils an’ jads thegither.Whiles, owre the wee bit cup an’ platie,They sip the scandal-potion pretty;Or lee-lang nights, wi’ crabbit leuksPore owre the devil’s pictur’d beuks;Stake on a chance a farmer’s stackyard,An’ cheat like ony unhanged blackguard.
There’s some exceptions, man an’ woman;But this is gentry’s life in common.
By this, the sun was out of sight,An’ darker gloamin brought the night;The bum-clock humm’d wi’ lazy drone;The kye stood rowtin i’ the loan;When up they gat an’ shook their lugs,Rejoic’d they werena men but dogs;An’ each took aff his several way,Resolv’d to meet some ither day.
Words in this poem 18
- whiles conj.
- During the time that; while. Chaucer. Fuller.
- simmer v. i.
- To boil gently, or with a gentle hissing; to begin to boil. [Prov. E. also simper; -- an onomatopoetic word.]
- wark n.
- Work; a building. [See Work.]
- auld a.
- Old; as, Auld Reekie (old smoky), i. e., Edinburgh. [See Old.]
- enow
- A form of Enough.
- sturt v. t.
- To vex; to annoy; to startle. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [Cf. Start, v. i.]
- acre n.
- Any field of arable or pasture land. [OE. aker, AS. æcer; akin to OS. accar, OHG. achar, Ger. acker, Icel. akr, Sw. åker, Dan. ager, Goth. akrs, L. ager, Gr. ajra. *2, 206.]
- dune n.
- A low hill of drifting sand usually formed on the coats, but often carried far inland by the prevailing winds. [The same word as down: cf. D. duin. See Down a bank of sand.]
- unco a.
- Unknown; strange, or foreign; unusual, or surprising; distant in manner; reserved. [Scot. The same word as E. uncouth.]
- weel
- A kind of trap or snare for fish, made of twigs. Carew. [Prov. E. weel, weal, a wicker basket to catch eels; prob. akin to willow, and so called as made of willow twigs.]
- curst a.
- Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [SeeCurse.]
- deil n.
- Devil; -- spelt also deel. Deil's buckie. See under Buckie.
- unquiet v. t.
- To disquiet. Ld. Herbert. [1st pref. un- + quiet.]
- galloping a.
- Going at a gallop; progressing rapidly; as, a galloping horse.
- scandal n.
- Offense caused or experienced; reproach or reprobation called forth by what is regarded as wrong, criminal, heinous, or flagrant: opprobrium or disgrace. [F. scandale, fr. L. scandalum, Gr. scandle, OF. escandle. See Slander.]
- stackyard n.
- A yard or inclosure for stacks of hay or grain. A. Smith.
- gentry n.
- Birth; condition; rank by birth. [OE. genterie, gentrie, noble birth, nobility, cf. gentrise, and OF. gentelise, genterise, E. gentilesse, also OE. genteleri high-mindedness. See Gent, a., Gentl]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
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-4.html, id L03005.
Form and metre
Caesar is 50 lines in 8 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 56% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 17 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA amA · themA
- 2 ----AABBBB sweat · heat · banes · granes · foolsA · schoolsA · themB · themB · themB · themB
- 3 AABB------ pleughA · eneughA · wheelB · weelB · warst · curst · lazy · uneasy · tasteless · restless
- 4 AABB racesA · placesA · artB · heartB
- 6 --AA--BBCC clusters · sisters · itherA · thegitherA · platie · pretty · leuksB · beuksB · stackyardC · blackguardC
- 8 AABB--CC sightA · nightA · droneB · loanB · lugs · dogs · wayC · dayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lord, man, were ye but whiles whare I am, | 9 | ········· |
| The gentles, ye wad ne’er envy them! | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| It’s true, they need na starve or sweat, | 8 | ········ |
| Thro’ winter’s cauld, or simmer’s heat: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| They’ve nae sair wark to craze their banes, | 8 | ········ |
| An’ fill auld age wi’ grips an’ granes: | 8 | ········ |
| But human bodies are sic fools, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| For a’ their colleges an’ schools, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| That when nae real ills perplex them, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| They mak enow themsel’s to vex them; | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| An’ aye the less they hae to sturt them, | 9 | ········· |
| In like proportion, less will hurt them. | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| A country fellow at the pleugh, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| His acre’s till’d, he’s right eneugh; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A country girl at her wheel, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Her dizzen’s dune, she’s unco weel; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But gentlemen, an’ ladies warst, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Wi’ ev’n-down want o’ wark are curst. | 8 | ········ |
| They loiter, lounging, lank an’ lazy; | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Tho’ deil-haet ails them, yet uneasy; | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Their days insipid, dull, an’ tasteless; | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| Their nights unquiet, lang, an’ restless. | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| An’ev’n their sports, their balls an’ races, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Their galloping through public places, | 9 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| There’s sic parade, sic pomp, an’ art, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The joy can scarcely reach the heart. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The men cast out in party-matches, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Then sowther a’ in deep debauches. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Ae night they’re mad wi’ drink an’ whoring, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Niest day their life is past enduring. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| The ladies arm-in-arm in clusters, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| As great an’ gracious a’ as sisters; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| But hear their absent thoughts o’ ither, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| They’re a’ run-deils an’ jads thegither. | 9 | ········· |
| Whiles, owre the wee bit cup an’ platie, | 9 | ········· |
| They sip the scandal-potion pretty; | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Or lee-lang nights, wi’ crabbit leuks | 8 | ········ |
| Pore owre the devil’s pictur’d beuks; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Stake on a chance a farmer’s stackyard, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| An’ cheat like ony unhanged blackguard. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| There’s some exceptions, man an’ woman; | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| But this is gentry’s life in common. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| By this, the sun was out of sight, | 8 | ········ |
| An’ darker gloamin brought the night; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The bum-clock humm’d wi’ lazy drone; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The kye stood rowtin i’ the loan; | 8 | ········ |
| When up they gat an’ shook their lugs, | 8 | ········ |
| Rejoic’d they werena men but dogs; | 9 | ˘/······· |
| An’ each took aff his several way, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Resolv’d to meet some ither day. | 8 | ˘/······ |
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