Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq
The poor man weeps—here Gavin sleeps,Whom canting wretches blam’d;But with such as he, where’er he be,May I be sav’d or damn’d!Hic Jacet wee Johnie.
Whoe’er thou art, O reader, knowThat Death has murder’d Johnie;An’ here his body lies fu’ low;For saul he ne’er had ony.
Words in this poem
- canting a.
- Speaking in a whining tone of voice; using technical or religious terms affectedly; affectedly pious; as, a canting rogue; a canting tone. - Cant"ing*ly, adv.
- damn v. t.
- To condemn; to declare guilty; to doom; to adjudge to punishment; to sentence; to censhure. [OE. damnen dap), OF. damner, dampner, F. damner, fr. L. damnare, damnatum, to condemn, fr. damnum damage, a fine, penalty. Cf. Condemn, Damage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq 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, Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/epitaph-for-gavin-hamilton-esq.html, id L03036.
Form and metre
Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq is 9 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 2 A-A- knowA · johnie · lowA · ony
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The poor man weeps—here Gavin sleeps, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whom canting wretches blam’d; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But with such as he, where’er he be, | 10 | ·····˘˘/·· |
| May I be sav’d or damn’d! | 6 | ······ |
| Hic Jacet wee Johnie. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Whoe’er thou art, O reader, know | 7 | ····/˘· |
| That Death has murder’d Johnie; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| An’ here his body lies fu’ low; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For saul he ne’er had ony. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.