I Love My Love in Secret
My Sandy gied to me a ring,Was a’ beset wi’ diamonds fine;But I gied him a far better thing,I gied my heart in pledge o’ his ring.
Chorus.—My Sandy O, my Sandy O,My bonie, bonie Sandy O;Tho’ the love that I oweTo thee I dare na show,Yet I love my love in secret, my Sandy O.
My Sandy brak a piece o’ gowd,While down his cheeks the saut tears row’d;He took a hauf, and gied it to me,And I’ll keep it till the hour I die.My Sand O, &c.
About this text
I Love My Love in Secret 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, I Love My Love in Secret, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/i-love-my-love-in-secret.html, id L03175.
Form and metre
I Love My Love in Secret is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A-AA ringA · fine · thingA · ringA
- 2 AAAAA oA · oA · oweA · showA · oA
- 3 AABB- gowdA · row'dA · meB · dieB · —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My Sandy gied to me a ring, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Was a’ beset wi’ diamonds fine; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| But I gied him a far better thing, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I gied my heart in pledge o’ his ring. | 9 | ········· |
| Chorus.—My Sandy O, my Sandy O, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| My bonie, bonie Sandy O; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Tho’ the love that I owe | 6 | ······ |
| To thee I dare na show, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet I love my love in secret, my Sandy O. | 12 | ······/˘·/˘· |
| My Sandy brak a piece o’ gowd, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| While down his cheeks the saut tears row’d; | 8 | ········ |
| He took a hauf, and gied it to me, | 9 | ········· |
| And I’ll keep it till the hour I die. | 9 | ······/·· |
| My Sand O, &c. | 4 | ···· |
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.