Epigram on the Laird of Laggan
When Morine, deceas’d, to the Devil went down,’Twas nothing would serve him but Satan’s own crown;“Thy fool’s head,” quoth Satan, “that crown shall wear never,I grant thou’rt as wicked, but not quite so clever.”
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epigram on the Laird of Laggan 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, Epigram on the Laird of Laggan, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/epigram-on-the-laird-of-laggan.html, id L03327.
Form and metre
Epigram on the Laird of Laggan is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABB downA · crownA · neverB · cleverB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When Morine, deceas’d, to the Devil went down, | 11 | ·˘/˘˘/··/·· |
| ’Twas nothing would serve him but Satan’s own crown; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| “Thy fool’s head,” quoth Satan, “that crown shall wear never, | 11 | ····/˘····/ |
| I grant thou’rt as wicked, but not quite so clever.” | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
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.