Fragment of Song
The night was still, and o’er the hillThe moon shone on the castle wa’;The mavis sang, while dew-drops hangAround her on the castle wa’;Sae merrily they danced the ringFrae eenin’ till the cock did craw;And aye the o’erword o’ the springWas “Irvine’s bairns are bonie a’.”
Words in this poem
- mavis n.
- The European throstle or song thrush (Turdus musicus). [F. mauvis, Arm. milvid, milfid, milc'hhouid, Corn. melhuez.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment of Song 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, Fragment of Song, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/fragment-of-song.html, id L03050.
Form and metre
Fragment of Song is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 50% 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.
- 1 -A-AB-B- hill · waA · hang · waA · ringB · craw · springB · a
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 night was still, and o’er the hill | 8 | ········ |
| The moon shone on the castle wa’; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The mavis sang, while dew-drops hang | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Around her on the castle wa’; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sae merrily they danced the ring | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Frae eenin’ till the cock did craw; | 8 | ········ |
| And aye the o’erword o’ the spring | 8 | ········ |
| Was “Irvine’s bairns are bonie a’.” | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.