I Murder Hate
I murder hate by flood or field,Tho’ glory’s name may screen us;In wars at home I’ll spend my blood—Life-giving wars of Venus.The deities that I adoreAre social Peace and Plenty;I’m better pleas’d to make one more,Than be the death of twenty.
I would not die like Socrates,For all the fuss of Plato;Nor would I with Leonidas,Nor yet would I with Cato:The zealots of the Church and StateShall ne’er my mortal foes be;But let me have bold Zimri’s fate,Within the arms of Cozbi!
Words in this poem
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- fuss n.
- A tumult; a bustle; unnecessary or annoying ado about trifles. [Cf. Fusome.]
- 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
I Murder Hate 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 Murder Hate, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/i-murder-hate.html, id L03212.
Form and metre
I Murder Hate is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 5 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.
- 1 -A-ABCBC field · usA · blood · venusA · adoreB · plentyC · moreB · twentyC
- 2 -A-AB-B- socrates · platoA · leonidas · catoA · stateB · be · fateB · cozbi
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I murder hate by flood or field, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Tho’ glory’s name may screen us; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| In wars at home I’ll spend my blood— | 8 | ········ |
| Life-giving wars of Venus. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The deities that I adore | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| Are social Peace and Plenty; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| I’m better pleas’d to make one more, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Than be the death of twenty. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| I would not die like Socrates, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For all the fuss of Plato; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Nor would I with Leonidas, | 7 | ······· |
| Nor yet would I with Cato: | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The zealots of the Church and State | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shall ne’er my mortal foes be; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But let me have bold Zimri’s fate, | 8 | ········ |
| Within the arms of Cozbi! | 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.