Lines to an Old Sweetheart
Once fondly lov’d, and still remember’d dear,Sweet early object of my youthful vows,Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere,Friendship! ’tis all cold duty now allows.And when you read the simple artless rhymes,One friendly sigh for him—he asks no more,Who, distant, burns in flaming torrid climes,Or haply lies beneath th’ Atlantic roar.
Words in this poem
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines to an Old Sweetheart 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, Lines to an Old Sweetheart, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/lines-to-an-old-sweetheart.html, id L03038.
Form and metre
Lines to an Old Sweetheart is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCD dearA · vowsB · sincereA · allowsB · rhymesC · moreD · climesC · roarD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Once fondly lov’d, and still remember’d dear, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Sweet early object of my youthful vows, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere, | 10 | ˘/···/˘·˘/ |
| Friendship! ’tis all cold duty now allows. | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| And when you read the simple artless rhymes, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| One friendly sigh for him—he asks no more, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Who, distant, burns in flaming torrid climes, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or haply lies beneath th’ Atlantic roar. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
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.